


Bronze, Silver, and Gold

by Forest_Girl



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: (seriously he curses a lot in the upcoming chapters. blame it on teenage angst), Bonding, Claiming, Cultural Differences, Dolphin Prompto, Horror Elements, Hurt/Comfort, Language Barrier, Light Angst, Magic, Mermaids, Misunderstandings, Multi, Near Death Experiences, Nicknames, Noctis Whump, Noctis has a potty mouth, Noctis passes out a lot, Octopus Ignis, Pneumonia, Rating May Change, Safe Sane and Consensual, Slow Burn, The horror elements are really minor don't worry, Tiger Shark Gladio, magic transformation, not a lotta ladies here, or. well. merMEN
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-10
Updated: 2018-06-30
Packaged: 2019-02-12 21:10:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 22,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12968478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Forest_Girl/pseuds/Forest_Girl
Summary: When Noctis was eight, a terrible storm out on the ocean took his mother's life, and nearly took his as well. He miraculously survived, and was found washed up on the coast with a torn-up back and three pieces of unfamiliar jewelry. Recovering from the ordeal, he refused to go near the ocean, or any source of salt water, his mind always flashing back to that one night out on the water.Nine years later and about to attend college, his father bought him an ocean-side villa, hoping that the beautiful scenery would be enough to persuade him into staying by the water. Reluctantly, Noctis agreed, but while unpacking, he found the same pieces of jewelry from that terrible night. Slightly curious, Noctis put them all on at once, wanting to see if they still fit.And then things gotweird.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be short. This was supposed to be a one-shot. This was supposed to originally be Gladnoctnis.
> 
> As I have learned over the past years, I have little to no self-control if left to my own devices.
> 
> I regret nothing.

The ship swayed wildly, groaning and barely holding together in the harsh weather. Noctis slipped and fell to the rain-slick deck, scrabbling for purchase as he was thrown to the side of the deck. His skin burning from the cold, heavy rain, he managed to pull himself to his feet and push the hair out of his eyes before another wave hit the boat, nearly capsizing it, but succeeding in throwing him overboard.

He didn’t even have time to suck in a shocked breath. Instantly, he was swallowed by the ink-black waters, his thin fishing clothes doing nothing to save his body warmth. The sting of salt assaulted his eyes, his mouth, and his sputtered, precious air bubbles escaping his lips. With one hand Noctis clamped his nose shut and used the other to desperately try and paddle to the surface. His feet kicked out beneath him, propelling him, but there was no way to tell if he was going upwards.

His lungs burned, and he coughed, doing his best to suppress the urge to cough and breathe in. He’d never been the best swimmer, though not for lack of trying. He just always had some sort of floaty helping him out.

Considering how choppy the waves were on the surface, he doubted that any number of floaties would help him now.

Unable to suppress it any longer, Noctis blew out more bubbles, and desperately tried to breathe, only to feel the sea water rush in. He coughed, or  attempted to cough, but he only let in more water. The pressure weighed down on him, pressing down on him and pushing against his chest. Behind his eyes, spots of light flashed and danced as his limbs grew heavier and heavier, his body limply moving with the waves.

The current pulled him down, and Noctis’ eyes flew open for a brief moment only to shut as his back scrapped along something. Fire exploded along his skin, and he tried to scream, only feeling more water rush and rush and rush and there wasn’t anything left in him, every empty part of him feeling bloated and too full. Dark shapes flitted around him, but Noctis couldn’t find it within him to care.

His mind had long since given up, before he even hit the water, and he allowed the cold water to drag him far, far away.

* * *

When the final box had been put in the small apartment, the moving van a distant speck on the horizon, and all of his father’s concerned calls about the move answered, Noctis allowed himself to flop down onto the couch and sink into the new, fluffy cushions. His phone hung limply from his grasp, dangling off the side as he traced bumpy patterns on his ceiling, and he was half tempted to close his eyes and take a nap.

Only half, though. His stomach rumbled angrily, and with a groan, Noctis forced himself to his feet once more to root through his many, many crates to find the snacks he’d packed away. Tomorrow, he’d dedicate the day to buying anything he needed, such as food and some new clothes or furniture pieces. Right now, he was going to snack the night away as he put away some of the stuff he’d brought from his old home.

His dad loved him, truly, but now that Noct had an entire house to himself, he couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief at the lack of constant supervision. Granted, his father’s concern was well founded—he hadn’t exactly had a reputation of perfect health throughout his life—but it felt liberating to finally take the first step into adulthood. College would start in two weeks, and Noctis had a fully-paid house with all of his bills for the next four years covered, all with a great view of the ocean, which was a brisk walk away.

Noctis felt a shudder crawl up his spine, settling in the base of his neck and staying there. He turned his head to the right, looking out the backdoor window to the endless expanse of blue with just the barest hints of dusty-yellow sand.

The ocean.

Noctis didn’t fear water, or swimming, or any activity that involved water, really. Back home, he and his father would regularly fish after ‘The Storm’ as a way to bond, and he fell in love with the hobby.

No, what Noctis feared was the ocean. It was cruel that he was now the ‘proud’ owner of a beachside villa. The only reason why he’d gotten the house was because his father insisted on it, refusing to let him stay at his college’s dorm or in an apartment building deeper in the city.

“I won’t settle on anything less for you and the best years of your life.” Regis had said with a smile as he playfully ruffled his son’s hair. “You should have a little bit of levity in college, and not be confined to a single room. Have a bit of fun!”

Noctis loved his father, and his father loved him, but he _hated_ being so close to the ocean. Fresh water lakes? Fine. Rivers? More than fine. Hot springs? Hell yeah!

Ocean? Noctis wouldn’t go within fifty feet of the coast, and if he was near the ocean then he was nowhere near the water. His body would shake and break out in a cold sweat, and if he stayed there for too long, he’d start to hyperventilate and pass out. It became an accepted fact of life in the Caelum household—Noctis would never go near the ocean willingly for the rest of his life.

But now he lived not even half a mile away from the deep blue, and his anxiety was doing its best to push him into leaving the house, and running for the hills. The only reason why he hadn’t done that yet was that he was completely _exhausted._ The long, five-hour drive from Insomnia to the southern fishing-port-slash-tourist-trap city had drained him of most of his energy, and helping the movers take his stuff and put it into the right rooms had basically left him feeling like he’d gotten run over.

His stomach rumbled angrily at him once more, and with a pinched expression, Noctis forced himself off the couch to grab his house keys. First, he’d get food, unpack what he needed, and _then_ he’d figure out a way to deal with his mounting panic at being near the ocean.

Or maybe he’d just ignore his situation entirely. Whatever worked best.

* * *

Hours later, exhausted and sufficiently done trying to remember all the names of the people and stores in town, Noctis returned with his arms loaded with groceries. He placed whatever needed to be kept cold in his refrigerator and left the rest on the counter for tomorrow. The sun was only just beginning to set, but he was so goddamned _tired._ With half-lidded eyes, he went upstairs to the room he’d claimed as his bedroom and nudged a few boxes out of the way, only to stop as he looked at his bed.

The mattress had no sheets, and he couldn’t remember where he put the box that had them, or if he packed any sheets in the first place.

Noctis groaned. He didn’t mind to having to sleep without sheets, but it was stupidly warm in Galdin Quay, and he typically slept naked. All of the clothes he had were somewhat layered, and were designed to keep him warm. Insomnia was known for having spring-like weather year-round, never dipping below fifty or rising above seventy. Galdin Quay, on the other hand, was balmy and unbearably warm for a city boy. If he was going to sleep naked, then he wanted to at least have a blanket in case someone decided to peep on their new neighbor.

“Back to box-searching.” He grumbled, turning to the small pile he’d shoved into the corner. Dammit, he just wanted to go to bed.

The first box he opened didn’t have anything promising—a couple of posters he’d admired and a couple of ancient trophies from some sport he’d played before The Storm. The second one had a myriad of textbooks, and a small pile of supplies atop them. Both were shoved to the side for later, the second one more harshly than the first, and he reached for a third. This one had a fair amount of his clothing, at the top, and he riffled through it, trying to see if he managed to put any blankets near the bottom.

His fingers brushed against something cool and metallic, and he froze. Carefully, Noctis pulled out a few of his clothes and placed them to the side until he found what was buried in the box.

He groaned upon seeing what it was. Shoved beneath layers upon layers of his now-too-warm clothes was a golden arm cuff, a silver chain necklace, and a bronze bracelet. He certainly hadn’t meant to bring them along, and he would’ve been more than content with leaving them in his room back home.

After The Storm, he was found washed up on the coast. Apparently, the current had dragged him towards the rocks, and his back had been torn up as a result. He was lucky his spine hadn’t been severely damaged, said all the doctors, but they coast guard found something new as well: the three pieces of jewelry he was currently looking at.

He had no memory of how he’d gotten the clearly expensive jewelry, having passed out long before he’d washed ashore. All that he _did_ know was that they acted as a comfort item while he was going through physical therapy. He had nightmares, so many nightmares about The Storm, and what was so close to happening. He’d wake up, and clutch onto whichever item was closest to his hospital bed.

Slowly but surely, as he recovered, the nightmares changed into dreams. Weird dreams. Dreams where he was surrounded by infinite blue, tranquility encompassing him as gentle waves washed over him, dark shapes dancing around him, smiles full of fangs and kindness.

He woke from those dreams more panicked than any of his nightmares. That calmness felt too close to acceptance, the surrender in those final moments of consciousness under the waves, lungs full, fit to burst, dragging him down down _down_ —

When he could walk properly, after all his PT was done, Noctis threw the jewelry into a locked box with a combination he didn’t know and buried it in the back of his father’s closet. When asked later where the pieces went, he shrugged and mumbled, “I dunno. Lost ‘em, I guess.”

Regardless, he certainly hadn’t packed them with all of his clothes. Regis had probably found the box one day, broke it open, and placed it in one of the moving boxes in his room as a weird, sentimental parting gift. After all, he never told anyone about his nightly terrors out of his childish stubbornness to convince people that he was okay.

Well… he wasn’t about to throw them away. They had to be made out of some expensive metals, and if he found the right buyer, he could probably sell them for a high price if he was strapped for cash, though he doubted he’d need it.

Being the son of a wealthy businessman, who was the head of a near-global technology corporation really helped when it came to his budget.

He pulled each item out of the box with a bit of reverence, inspecting them individually as the metal caught his desk lamp light. It had been a bit over nine years since he’d seen the accessories, and they didn’t look worse for wear. He’d forgotten how… _intricate_ they all were. Both the arm cuff and bracelet had carvings etched into them, mainly depicting various types of fish and other underwater creatures. Even the necklace, with tightly interwoven chains, had thin, swooping designs, each one having their own unique pattern.

“Wonder if they still fit?” Noctis stood and made his way across the hall, into his bathroom. After flicking the light on, he placed the jewelry down on the counter and carefully removed his sweatshirt, taking care not to do it too quickly, or look at his back in the mirror. The sight of the scars still sent an uncomfortable shiver down his spine.

Eying the pieces laid out in front of him, he decided to try the necklace first. It was arguably the easiest to remove and, if it got stuck, it would be the easiest to hide while he looked for someone to cut it off. He looked over the chain once more, trying to see if there was a hidden latch that would make his life easier.

There wasn’t.

He slipped the necklace over his head. The metal caught on his ears for a second, but then slipped down to settle comfortably just above his collarbone. Noctis arched his brow. It… actually fit better, if his memory was to be trusted. When he was a kid, he remembered having to constantly adjust the chain because it kept slipping back and choking him. Now, it fit perfectly, almost as if it was made for him.

_Weird._

He went for the cuff next, experimentally running his fingers over the bumpy texture and admiring the attention to detail in the carved images. It was easy enough to slip on, but once he got it into a comfortable position, it didn’t seem like it was going to budge, which made sense. The cuff was pretty easy to just… rip off, if one needed to, so having it be _just_ small enough to not cut off circulation made it stick to his arm like glue.

Before even thinking about it, Noctis reached for the bracelet, only to hesitate before he could grab it. The arm cuff and necklace were both easy to remove with a bit of twisting and careful movements. However, the bracelet had no easy removal method if it got caught in his arm hair, or pinched his skin. He’d have to grit his teeth and bear it (Noctis would never admit that he was a bit of a baby when it came to pain, but he was, and he wasn’t looking forward to that possibility).

Noctis looked at himself in the mirror. The silver necklace and cuff stood out against his pale skin and… he couldn’t deny that it looked _good._ Definitely not a look he’d choose regularly, but the mismatched accessories seemed to compliment him in an odd, almost archaic way.

But wasn’t this good enough? Couldn’t he just imagine what the bracelet looked like on his wrist? He looked down at the counter—

—And saw that, somehow, he’d put the bracelet on without even realizing it. He froze as he looked at the bronze and bright orange gems, and then at his own hands, because he certainly hadn’t _meant_ to put it on, and it was kinda hard to not notice that.

He reached to take it off, only to let out a strained yell as a migraine slammed into him. He stumbled away from the mirror, clutching at his head and pressing down, hoping that the pressure would alleviate some of the pain.

It didn’t. If anything, the pain seemed to grow worse, and his whole body buzzed with… _something._ He managed to pry one of his eyes open and caught his reflection in the mirror. The bathroom lights made the jewelry look like it was glowing, the intricate carvings lost in his swimming vision.

He didn’t have time to look closer, or even contemplate what was happening, before his vision blacked out, and he was lost to darkness.

* * *

When Noctis came to, he was lying on his side in the middle of his bedroom, all the boxes open and their contents strewn about. For a brief moment, his mind flashed to one of the maids his father had hired him, who constantly complained about him leaving his dirty clothes everywhere, and how everything he wore would be “forever tainted by wrinkles.”

He blinked and dismissed the thought, pushing himself up until he was sitting up. The sun had barely risen, and the small, electronic clock on his bedside table read 8:52 AM.

Noctis grabbed the back of his neck and rolled head, feeling a few pops as he stretched. He stumbled his way to his feet, blood rushing to his head before he righted himself and let the brief disorientation fade.

What the hell had happened? He found his old jewelry, he put it on, and then… blacked out and stumbled back into his bedroom before passing out. And he’d apparently opened all his boxes, too. That made total sense.

He looked at his arms, seeing the cuff, the bracelet, and, at the very bottom of his vision, the chain necklace. Experimentally, he tugged at the bracelet, grunting when it didn’t budge. The arm cuff provoked the same reaction, barely budging as he tried to pry his fingernails underneath it.

“Goddammit.” Noctis swore, letting his arms flop down as he tilted his head back. He shouldn’t have put these stupid things on in the first place, now he’d actually have to go and find someone to remove them. Noctis grabbed his laptop and left his bedroom to go and get a bowl of cereal from his kitchen.

He ignored the scattered boxes, dismissing it as something his tired, completely-out-of-it mind had done just before passing out. If he kept the necklace on when he probably could’ve removed it and put it back in its box, or away in a drawer, it was just because he forgot it was there, and nothing more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come talk to me on Tumblr! diana-egalla-montrier.tumblr.com


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Noctis goes to Hammerhead to try and get his new accessories cut off, and meets Cindy Aurum and Cid Sophiar. They refer him to practicing jewelers out on the coast.
> 
> Needless to say, things don't go quite to plan.

“Y’want me to do what now?”

Noctis sighed and showed his arms to the local mechanic. There wasn’t a metalworks or jeweler anywhere near where he lived, certainly nothing reputable, and he’d have to travel out of town to get somewhere trustworthy. Cash wasn’t really a problem, but he didn’t want to have to rely on his father’s money while he was out here.

Besides, having to explain why he needed this done would’ve been embarrassing for both of them.

Instead, he went to Hammerhead, an auto-shop-slash-gas-station just on the outskirts of town. Their prices were reasonable, they were pretty well-known if all the people in town were to be trusted, and if these guys could work on and customize cars, cutting off a couple pieces of jewelry should be a piece of cake.

Noctis sighed and lifted his arms and flicked his wrists side to side, letting the sunlight dance across the metal. “I need to get these cut off. I can’t go to a jeweler and their stuck, so…”

The blonde woman, whose name was Cindy, according to the tag on her… revealing shirt, frowned and tried to pull it off just like Noctis had earlier. When it didn’t budge, she moved to the cuff, only for the same result. “Well, those _are_ stuck on pretty tight…”

“And I’m… kinda desperate. I tried all the home remedies and, well, I didn’t have any luck with those.” Noctis grumbled. “Is there any way you could, y’know, try to remove them?”

Cindy pursed her lips and examined the bracelet and cuff, turning Noctis’ arms this way and that. “Well, we do have something in the shop that can cut through metal, but it’s not meant for metals as small and thin as jewelry. I could ask Papa to take a look see and he could try to cut through ‘em, but I don’t know…”

“You don’t think you can cut it?”

“Now hold on, I didn’t say that.” Cindy pouted and dropped his arms, placing her hands on her hips. “But I’ve never had to cut thin metal off of a person, and I’d rather not mess it up. If y’want a better chance at not cutting your arms in half, then you’re gonna want Papa to cut it.”

Cindy turned and went into the shop, waving to someone as she went. Noctis sighed and leaned back against the garage door, taking his smartphone out of his pocket. There were a few texts from his dad, all of which he replied to easily, making sure not to mention his current… situation. A few minutes passed before he heard footsteps coming towards him.

Looking up, Noctis could already tell that this wasn’t going to go well. Cindy was strutting forward, a warm smile on her face as she pointed Noctis out to an old man hobbling along next to him. He was hunched over, hands placed behind his back, and Noctis could make out a scowl underneath a faded red baseball cap.

Cindy sort of hopped and stood between them, and Noctis shifted uncomfortably at the older man’s obvious glare. “Papa, this is Noctis. Noctis, this is my Papa, Cid.”

“So, ya want me t’help ya with your little fashion disaster?” The old man said in such a way that Noctis couldn’t tell if it was an attempt at a joke or an accusation. Either way, he showed his wrists to Cid for him to examine.

Taking one of his hands, Cid examined it similarly to Cindy, though Noctis could see his jaw unclench, the wrinkles on his face lessen. He hummed after looking at the bracelet, thumb running over one of the carvings, before abruptly dropping both of Noctis’ arms. “‘Fraid I can’t do much, boy.”

“What? Why not?” Noctis pulled his hands back. “Look, if it’s a money issue—”

“It ain’t.” Cid looked up at him, something weird in his eyes. “It’s because these metals are too thin, and our tools are big and imprecise. If we don’t end up accidentally cuttin’ through ya arms by applyin’ too much pressure, then the sparks from the cuttin’ll burn ya. We could put an apron on ya, but we don’t have any gloves that can only cover ya hand. Best to go to a jeweler if ya _really_ want them removed.”

“Great.” Noctis grumbled. He really didn’t want to have to leave the town to find a jeweler who could get these stupid things off. “Got any recommendations?”

Cindy shrugged. “Not that I—”

“Actually,” Cid interrupted. “A good friend of mine lives out by the surf out near the boatin’ docks that’s a practicin’ jeweler. Go find Dino ‘n Coctura, and they should have the tools ya need ta cut you loose. Tell ‘em I sent ya, and they might just give ya a discount.”

Noctis was thrown off by the oddly jovial tone Cid spoke with. So was Cindy, if her expression was anything to go by. He hesitated before nodding, pushing off the edge of the garage door. “Thank... you?”

“Ya welcome.” Cid nodded, and pointed at the street. “Now, git going.”

He nodded and walked away slowly, looking over his shoulder at one point to see Cindy looking weirdly at Cid. Still, that was his best option flushed down the shitter, and he didn’t know if the ‘practicing jeweler’ would be able to do anything. Climbing into the front seat of his car, Noctis pulled away from Hammerhead and made his way back to his house.

The plan right now was the leave his car at his house and… go to the boating docks. That was fine. He could walk along the beach. He probably didn’t even have to go near the water, he just needed to find the jewelers, and get these stupid things off of him.

He might’ve lingered a bit longer than necessary in his car after he parked. He told himself that he just wanted to stay until the song was finished. And the next one. And… maybe the next one.

The sunlight hit the gold cuff, and he pressed his forehead against the steering wheel, letting the horn blare for a few seconds. He dragged himself out of his seat and closed the door behind him, double-checking that everything was locked, and slowly made his way down the driveway.

_You’re fine,_ He repeatedly told himself as he neared the sand just by the sidewalk. _You’re fine, you’re fine, you’re fine._

But as he walked, he couldn’t help but look at the cresting waves, hearing them crash against the shoreline, and there was nothing he could do about the salty smell. All of the reassurances in the world couldn’t help him as he felt his legs grow weak, and he had to stop and sit down. His head falls between his legs, and he protectively wraps his arms around it to drown out his senses as much as possible. At his house, he could manage his panic as he’d essentially made it a safe space. It was filled with familiar objects and he wasn’t close enough to the ocean for it to affect him.

Being this close, however, brought his panic to the surface. Pressure built up in the back of his head, not unlike a migraine, and he grunted at the building pain. He reached back and pinched the back of his neck, hoping that would help, only to feel it persist. The sound of rushing blood drowned out the sound of the waves and, for a moment, he felt like screaming.

Abruptly, the headache vanished. Noctis kept his head down, mainly out of surprise at the sudden change. As he kept his eyes closed, it felt more and more like his head was detached from his body, but he didn’t want to move and shatter his newfound peace. For the moment, he let the sun’s warmth press down on him as he basked in his calmness.

There was large splash directly in front of him, the sound jarring him out of his stupor. He jolted back into awareness and flailed wildly. Somehow, he was standing completely upright at the end of a mostly empty boating dock. Another wave splashed against the slightly moldy dock and sprayed him with saltwater. Noctis stumbled back a few steps before this legs gave out. He tried to get back up, but the constant shaking made the task impossible. Instead, he shut his eyes and tried to block everything else out.

What the fuck happened? One second, he was sitting on the sidewalk waiting for heart to calm down, the next, he was standing at the end of a boating dock about to walk off the edge.

The next breath he took was shaky, and halfway through it he felt his stomach churn and he dry heaved, feeling his nausea mounting and hoping that he wouldn’t puke up his breakfast. Placing his head on his arms, he tried breathing, swallowing down any bile that would threaten to rise.

_Splash._

Noctis flinched, turning his head to the left. There was an irregular splashing sound, something that broke the pattern of the waves, a few feet away from where he was laying.

At the reminder of just how close he was to the ocean, Noctis shuddered and put his head down again. If he thought about it, then he was only going to get worse, but how could he _not_ think about it, practically stranded on the dock and unable to move?

Another splash came from the same direction, but this time he couldn’t bring himself to look. Right now, he was focusing not having a heart attack and trying to get the shaking in his legs to stop long enough for him to make his way back to shore. Hell, just feeling the sand beneath his feet would be a comfort. All he needed to do was stop shaking, pull himself together, and go back to his house. Fuck the jeweler, he’d just wear a jacket and make sure that his circulation wasn’t getting cut off.

There was a third splash, followed by what felt like a tsunami slamming into Noctis’ side. He recoiled and his eyes flew open, frantically rolling away from where the wave came from. He saw a flash of brown and gray before he there wasn’t anymore wood beneath him. The crystal blue sky flashed above him before it was swallowed by a flood of bubbles as he hit the water.

It was a mix of shock and surprise that kept him from moving at first. Then the saltwater burned his eyes, and he flailed his arms, desperately trying to swim to the surface while resisting the urge to hyperventilate. This was it. This was all of his worst nightmares and memories combined, and panic clawed at his heart. He could vaguely tell that he was shaking, though whether it was from the cold or his rapidly approaching breakdown, he couldn’t tell.

Something brushed against his leg—like wet sandpaper—and he screamed. He barely managed to cover his mouth before he let out any more air. He kicked out, now more concerned about keeping a potential man-eating predator away from him than making his way to the surface.

Then—then a pair of hands grabbed his arms, pulling them away from his mouth, and inadvertently closer to whoever was holding him. Noctis managed to open his eyes, and he saw the vague, blurry outline of a head before he looked down and resumed his struggles, his heart practically exploding out of his chest.

Where the person’s legs should be, there was a massive tail nearly as long as Noctis was tall.

_I’m going to die._

Whether the thought was caused by panic or the sight of the _mythical fucking creature_ holding him, Noctis didn’t know and he didn’t care. Right now, he was concentrated on breaking the thing’s hold and paddling to the shore before running home and moving all his stuff to the college. He’d call and demand a last-minute dorm assignment because, after all of this, living in that stupid, ocean-side villa was _not_ an option.

There was a weird rumbling sound that echoed through the water, and he was spun to press against a very flat, very _male_ chest. A few, precious bubbles of air left him in surprise, and he shivered as the thing’s mouth drew close to his ear.

_ “Dormi, mortigu.” _

Noctis felt his fists slowly unfurl against his will as he heard the words. A heaviness spread through his limbs, like liquid lead, and his body relaxed without his consent. He felt like that one time he’d gotten drunk at a friend’s house, the alcohol making him feel floaty and distant, but in a good way. He felt too relaxed to care about what was happening.

_This isn’t natural,_ the rational part of his brain reminded him, somehow breaking through his the odd sluggishness pulsing through his veins and reminding him of what was currently happening. He stirred, trying in vain to wiggle out of the merman’s grip, and rouse himself into awareness. Another rumble resonated through the person’s chest and into Noctis’ bones, and the creature moved one of his arms to carefully stroke his hair. _ “Dormi.” _

He fell limp, his eyelids relaxing and he leaned into the merman’s warm grip as he slipped into a nightmare-less sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come talk to me on Tumblr! diana-egalla-montrier.tumblr.com
> 
> For any of those curious about what that strange, foreign language is saying, hover your mouse over the italicized text ;)
> 
> However, this doesn't work on literally anything but computers, so here's the translation:
> 
> Dormi, Mortigu = Sleep, Mate


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> That feel when you wake up in an underwater cave with no recollection of how you got there and no way out, only to meet a mute octopus man.

A drop of water hit his cheek, sharp and cold, and Noctis slowly stirred into awareness. He groaned, feeling something hard and unforgiving and definitely not his mattress beneath him, but he felt so  _ heavy. _ Someone had covered his body in cement, and Noctis was more than content not to move.

Then he heard water slapping against something, and he jolted awake, eyes flying open as he scrambled to sit up. He was in a medium-sized cave, which glistened in the very small amount of light that leaked through an opening in the ground. The opening was filled with seawater, judging by the smell, and the light leaking through casted odd reflections on the roof of the cave.

“Fuck.” Noctis cursed and managed to clamber to his feet. His clothes were wet and clung to his skin uncomfortably, his hair stuck to his forehead and hung over his eyes. He reached for his phone, but even before he pulled it out of his pocket, he knew it would be fried. He never bought one of those water protection cases, mainly because he assumed he would never need it, so the salt probably fried everything.

Which meant that he had no other light sources, other than the minimal amount creeping through the hole a few feet away. He could barely make out anything a few feet away from it, and he wasn’t sure he could safely walk around and try to find another tunnel leading to the surface.

Which meant he was trapped.

Groaning, Noctis rubbed the heels of his palms against his eyes and sat down on the cold, wet stone. He was tired, confused, soaking wet, and stranded in a cave that could be submerged underwater, for all he knew.

How the hell did he even get here? He fell off the dock, hit the water, and…

And a fucking  _ merman _ grabbed him? No way, he had to be hallucinating, or—or his frenzied, oxygen-deprived mind made him imagine a person trying to help him. Because mermaids, mer _ men,  _ weren’t real. They were just some cheap fantasy creature that was created for crappy, b-fantasy movie for some sailor to fall in love with after being stranded on a desert island.

Noctis knew for a fact he was not in a b-fantasy movie. This was reality, and right now, he was trapped in an underwater cave with no conceivable way out. Best case scenario, there was another tunnel somewhere along the walls, but it was just too dark for him to make it out with such little light. Worst case scenario, he got washed up here by pure chance, and the hole in front of him lead to a really long underwater tunnel that was his only way out. And since Noctis had a complete lack of swimming skills, the odds that he would be able to swim to the other end while suppressing his panic were slim to none.

Either way, he had no food, no clean water to drink, and he only had the wet clothes on his back to keep him warm. If he didn’t die of starvation or dehydration, then he’d die of hypothermia long before someone found him.

So, right now, he needed to try and stay warm. Keeping his clothes on certainly weren’t going to help keep him warm, but hopefully his own body heat would dry them, and he’d feel warm soon enough. Moving would also probably help him in the long run, so he forced himself to his feet. Goosebumps covered his arms, and he felt a chill run up his spine. He warily walked around the edge of the water pool until he made it to the wall behind it.

He breathed in, out, placed his hand on the wall, and started to walk. His steps never fully left the ground, just barely brushing the ground to make sure he didn’t stub his toes on a rock and fall flat on his face. As he made his way away from the pool and around the cave, his panic didn’t abate. Rather, he traded his panic of the water for the general anxiety of gradually losing his sight as the light began to fade.

_ Splash. _

Noctis’ heart jumped into his throat. He looked over his shoulder at the pool, and saw a series of ripples make their way to the edges. Refusing to look away but still  determined to see if there was another tunnel  _ somewhere, _ Noctis switched which hand pressed against the wall and walked backwards at a slower pace than before. While this was more dangerous, the last thing he wanted was some deep sea monster leaping out of the pool to try and grab his legs and drag him under the water.

A tense moment came and went, and when nothing happened, Noctis let out the breath he was holding. He swallowed and hung his head, and took a few steps back, checking over his shoulder occasionally for any obvious bumps to keep himself from tripping.

If he was being honest, he felt like an idiot. He probably looked like one, too, but he wasn’t about to openly admit that. He was doing the right thing—keeping his eyes on the major source of danger in the room, and his back turned towards relative safety.

The image of a massive spider flashed in his mind, and Noctis froze, and uncomfortable shiver running down his spine as he stopped moving. “You’re being stupid, Noct.” He told himself, fingernails digging into the almost-smooth rock wall. “There’s no way a fucking  _ spider, _ of all things, is hiding in this cave. If there is something hiding out here, it’s a crab, not a spi—”

The water in the pool exploded upwards with a loud splash, the sound jarring from the near-silence before. With a scream and flailing limbs, Noctis fell flat on his ass and banged his shoulder on the wall. Leaning the edge of the pool was, to Noctis’ embarrassment, a shirtless man. In the wild light provided by the pool, Noctis could make out a few paper-thin scars scattered along his arms and torso. Along with that, Noctis could kind of make out the faint shine of a necklace, and both wrists had a similar shine to it. His sandy brown hair hung in front of his eyes, and he slicked it back, sea-green eyes locking onto Noctis with the hyper-aware focus of a predator.

“Holy fuck.” Noctis swore, holding his hand over his heart. “What the hell, man, you scared the shit outta me!”

The man, at the very least, was humble enough to look away, a hint of red in his cheeks. He sunk a bit deeper into the water, his arms flat against the cold rock as he hid his mouth behind them. Noctis sighed and moved his arm in a wide circle, grimacing at the slight pull, but otherwise okay. At worse, he just bruised it enough to hurt, but not enough to cripple.

“So…” Noctis began awkwardly, mentally slapping himself for such a shitty start to a conversation. “Is there a way out of this cave that doesn’t involve me getting wet?”

The man lifted his head, gesturing at Noctis’ attire with an arched brow, as if to say, “Aren’t you  _ already _ wet?”

Noctis huffed. “Yeah, I know I’m wet. I’d like avoid getting wetter, if I could.”

The man smiled, though it didn’t seem mocking. A moment passed, and his expression sobered. He shook his head at Noctis and pointed down at the pool he was treading water in.

“That’s the only way out, huh?” The man nodded, and Noctis blew a raspberry, leaning back until he was laying down, watching the light patterns dance across the ceiling. Dammit, then there really was no way he could get out easily. Sure, he might be able to make it, considering that this guy had found his way into the cave, but that was assuming he knew how to swim and would be able to keep a level head. Which, really, he probably couldn’t.

“Any reason why you’re not talking?” Noctis raised his head to see the man point to his throat. He made an odd rasping noise before drawing an X over it. 

“Can’t speak?” A nod, and the man dipped down into the water again, submerging most of his chest. He perked up a moment later, propping his elbows on the rim of the pool, but he didn’t make any move to get out.

“Aren’t you cold? Or tired?” The man shrugged, laying most of his torso on the cold cave floor. “You can come up here, you know. It’s not like I’m taking up a lot of room.”

The man tilted his head and examined Noctis, and he couldn’t help but squirm under the scrutiny. Eventually, the man shifted his weight and stretched out his left hand, palm facing upwards. A few seconds passed and the man’s imploring eyes darting between his hand and Noctis.

“Do… do you want me to help you up?” The man smiled and nodded. Noctis let out a shaky sigh and pushed himself to his feet, making his way slowly to the water’s edge. He took a calming breath when he was about a foot away from the edge, and reached to take the other’s hand.

With a surge of strength, the man pushed most of his upper body out of the water and grabbed his arm cuff, pulling Noctis down with his weight. Noctis braced his legs and opened his mouth to say something, probably telling the man to let go so that he could get a better grip, but—

There was no, clear-cut way for Noctis to accurately describe what happened next. A burst of light came from the cuff, practically swallowing both of their hands. A buzz filled Noctis’ body, making his knees weak and stuffing his ears with cotton as he struggled to remain upright and out of the water. He was reminded of a science lab he did for physics, where he had to demonstrate an electrical charge with an open and closed circuit.

The world spun, and Noctis’ knees gave out. He tumbled forward into the water, and the burn of saltwater hitting his eyes snapped him out of his daze. He closed his eyes and flailed, attempting to dislodge the man’s grip on his arm and kick back to the surface, only to be tugged closer. The cuff on his arm felt like it was burning, and Noctis wanted to scream at the top of his lungs, even if it meant drowning.

_ “Trankviliĝu.”  _ The words came clear as day, and that alone made Noctis stop thrashing. His heart continued to beat like it wanted to burst out of his chest, and he was running out of air to breathe because the man hadn’t let go of his wrist, so Noctis scratched at the man’s iron grip with his free hand.  _ “Trankviliĝu, bonvolu.” _

It took Noctis a moment to realize that, without his permission, his body was starting to calm down. His heart wasn’t racing anywhere near as hard as it had been a few minutes before, and he wasn’t kicking as much, just letting his body be supported by the man. Another hand grabbed his bicep, and there was a brief pull before he was rushed to the surface of the pond.

Breaching the surface, Noctis gasped and immediately spluttered, trying to get rid of all the saltwater that had clogged his nose and gone down his throat. He shivered as the man dragged him out of the water and onto the cold floor of the cave, the excess water rolling off and forming a puddle beneath him.

The man made a weird sound in the back of his throat, not unlike a gasp, and something pulled at his ankles. Noctis made a tired sound—he wanted nothing more in that moment than to  _ sleep— _ but he opened his eyes. The man obscured most of his view, leaning over him with a pained expression on his face, trying to press closer and provide a little warmth. 

Something circled his wrists, something wet and slimy and all around  _ weird _ feeling. Noctis tensed and, after feeling dread settle in his stomach, looked down at his hands.

Coiled around his wrists were two violet tentacles.

…Yep.

Noctis screamed and thrashed, scratching at the tentacles as he tried to move away. The things around his ankles (more tentacles from  _ somewhere, _ he guessed) pulled roughly and kept him from doing anything more than wiggle. His arms were pressed together as a singular tentacle encircled them, keeping him pinned. As he tried to thrash and escape, more tentacles wrapped around his thighs, his waist, his chest, limiting his movement even more. Despite their thin appearance, they were unnaturally strong, and they easily constricted his limbs.

Noctis looked at the man perched casually above him. The man’s expression somewhat pained but he was otherwise unbothered by the fucking  _ tentacles _ practically engulfing him. “What the  _ hell _ are you doing! Help me!”

The man opened and closed his mouth repeatedly, only to look away and bite his lip. Noctis paused his struggling for just a moment, because with the light source now behind the man and not beneath him, and with Noctis’ adjusted eyes, he could make out that his teeth were… abnormally sharp. Ignoring the tentacles’ tightening grip, Noctis looked down the man’s chest until reaching his waist.

Where there should be a pair of legs and swim trunks, there was a violet, fleshy mass that started from just above the man’s pelvis. The tentacles wrapped around his arms were attached to it, and flexed, as if to show off their strength.

Noctis screamed again, trying to buck and dislodge the man entirely. Though he appeared startled, the man lifted himself off of Noctis with just his arms (that lying son of a bitch probably didn’t even need any help getting out of the pool) and kept him trapped with his tentacles.

_ “Trankviliĝu!” _

“Don’t—don’t tell me to fucking ‘trunk village you’, get the fuck  _ off  _ me!” But it was happening again. His body began to relax, the tension bleeding out as his strength left him. It wasn’t like before, when he’d fallen off the dock and passed out shortly afterwards. No, this felt like his body had been given a sedative, and he couldn’t do anything against it.

When he couldn’t get his body to thrash, or kick, or fight back with any strength, Noctis went limp against the cave floor and sobbed. He—the creature had to have injected him with some sort of poison, making his muscles weak. That had to be the reason why he couldn’t do anything, and now—now he was probably gonna get eaten, or something. The cave must be the thing’s lair, and he had been taken here after he passed out to wear down and now he was going to probably die, _ again. _

Noctis was turned gently onto his side, and he did his best to curl into a ball, if only to conserve body heat. The tentacles wrapped around him, cocooning him in the slimy, pulsing warmth. The suckers kneaded at his exposed skin and pulled at his wet clothes. A curious tentacle wiggled its way underneath his shirt and, with a brief croon, his shirt was ridden up. 

The creature froze, even the latching and unlatching sensation of the tentacles paused, and Noctis felt fingers trail over the jagged scars. He flinched away from the curious touch with a poorly suppressed whimper. The scars no longer hurt, though he would occasionally get a bit of pain whenever a storm was brewing. However, feeling someone trace over the marks always made him feel uncomfortable. He could only feel the vague pressure of the person’s fingers against his back, the bumpy scar tissue eliminating his sense of touch. The only people he’d ever let examine them were his doctors, his father, and his childhood friend, Luna, during one of her visits.

It… it was  _ violating, _ in a way. A creature, completely alien, keeping him trapped and confined, was tracing over such a personal mark almost carelessly before it chowed down. He wanted to shy away, but he didn’t have anywhere to go, or any means to do so. Carefully, he opened his eyes and looked up at his captor.

The creature’s sea-green eyes were locked onto his face, monitoring him. Its hand went still against his back, gently resting against the scar tissue. Its head tilted, a curious trill leaving its lips as it leaned closer. Noctis tried to press himself into the rocks, hoping that maybe the floor would give out beneath him and teleport him away. He clenched his eyes shut and held his breath, waiting for the killing blow.

A brief, warm puff of air hit his ear. Noctis’ whole body jerked and the tentacles tightened their grip on him, reprimanding him for moving. His eyes flew open to see the creature’s cheek as it drew closer nipped at his ear. The creature didn’t bite too hard, certainly not enough to pierce, but the dull pain made the hairs on the back of his neck rise. The nips travelled lower and lower, moving on from his ear until it reached the pulse point on his neck. Applying just the barest pressure with its teeth, it sucked and licked with determination, creating a spine-tingling sensation.

The shaky moan that left Noctis’s lips was completely unbidden, and he could do nothing to stop it. His mind felt foggy, but in a good way, and his body relaxed naturally. The trill from earlier happened again, but it was deeper, and stayed the same pitch. With hazy vision, Noctis saw the creature pull away with a self-satisfied smirk, and he let out a small groan as he tried to collect himself.

A loud splash and high-pitched squeal broke Noctis out of the stupor, the tension returning to his body. The creature above him grumbled and pulled away, turning its torso towards the pool of water. The tentacles loosened their grip slightly, enough for some Noctis to have some wiggle room.

He wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Noctis pulled his arms apart and managed to get his left arm loose. The creature turned back to give him a look similar to a mother scolding her child, but he didn’t care, panic and fear fueling his actions.

He reared his arm back and punched the creature in the face as hard as he could. There was an audible click as the creature’s jaw snapped shut, and the tentacles wrapped around his limbs spasmed before letting him go completely as it retreated into the pool. Freed, Noctis clambered to his feet and stumbled away away, flinching at the furious snarl that came from the water, and he couldn’t help but look at the rippling water.

The octopus-like creature was drifting away from him, tenderly massaging its jaw. Beside him was another creature who was letting out eye pitched clicks as he fretted over the octopus man. Drawing closer to the edge of the pool, growling and snarling and churning the waters around it was a creature built like a truck. There was a nasty-looking scar going down over its left eye, and when it saw Noctis examining it, it bared its razor-sharp teeth at him and lunged for the cave floor, trying to drag itself up and out of the water.

Noctis tripped and fell, hard, but he managed to scramble back on his hands and knees until his back hit the cave wall. When he couldn’t move back anymore, he curled into his increasingly-familiar ball and covered his head, digging his fingernails into his scalp.

_ This can’t be happening. _ Noctis shook and curled as tightly as he could manage, his panicked beating of his heart drowning out the snarls and frenetic splashes.  _ This can’t be fucking happening! _

He didn’t know how long he sat there, trying to ignore his rising panic. When he felt calm enough to think clearly, he lowered his arms, and blinked at the sudden change in brightness. The pool was empty, and water lapped gently at the edges. If it weren’t for the large puddles of water near the pool and the myriad of sucker-shaped bruises covering his body, Noctis would’ve thought he imagined the whole thing.

Trembling, Noctis rolled onto his side and threw his arms over his face. If he pretended hard enough, he could imagine that he was safe at home, as far away from the ocean as physically possible, and that none of this had ever happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Noctis’ experience with the cold is more or less based off my own knowledge. Being from the north, you’re taught what not to do when you’re out in the snow and wet, and that advice amounts to “don’t stay still, don’t lie down, if you feel tired, fight against that, and keep moving.” The idea is, so long as you can still move, then you can get circulation to the rest of your body, and you’ll be able to generate your own body heat to stave off hypothermia until you can get help.
> 
> Would in-game Noctis know all of this? Maybe, depending upon how extensive his training was (we obviously know that he got basic combat training + magic training, but would they teach him how to survive on his own in the wilderness, in the freezing cold?). However, in this AU, I imagine it’s a coping mechanism of sorts after the storm that took his mother. Maybe he wanted to learn how to survive out in the wilderness during a storm so that nothing similar to that would ever happen again.
> 
> Or maybe he just watched a lot of survival movies and TV shows. Who knows?
> 
> **Translations:**
> 
> Trankviliĝu = Calm down  
> Bonvolu = Please


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Y’know, laying in a puddle of seawater in a cold, dank cave for an extended period of time can’t be good for your health.
> 
> Merry Christmas!

At one point, Noctis fell asleep. He woke up even colder than before, shivering like he’d been thrown in the middle of a tundra. The dip in the pool and the stress of the whole situation wasn’t helping matters, and he could feel the beginnings of a cold. Pain radiated from his chest, and he could feel the congestion building in the back of his throat. Forget about him looking stupid—now he probably looked like shit. He could feel the bags under his eyes, and his whole body felt achy and sore.

Noctis coughed weakly. “Fuckin’ mer… _things.”_

When he woke up, he was half expecting to see his intestines ripped out of his body, or to be held close to the octopus guy’s chest, like a mother would hold their kid. Instead, he was alone in the cave, feeling like death warmed over.

He did get an opportunity to examine the rest of the walls, walking around on achy and inflamed joints, and found nothing but smooth rock. With nothing else to do, he sat against the wall furthest from the pool, refusing to go near it. No secret tunnels meant that was the only way in and out. At the very least, octopus-guy hadn’t been lying about that.

Noctis furrowed his brow from his spot, pulling his legs closer as he leaned his chin on his knee caps. It clearly _spoke_ a different language, making the occasionally growl and a lot of other weird noises, but it understood Noctis just fine when he spoke, as well.

Another weird thing to add to the ever-increasing list, he guessed. And he’d have plenty of time to contemplate it while he sat here and waited.

* * *

When the water in the pool parted with a high-pitched squeal, Noctis didn’t even flinch. Instead, he leveled a glare at whatever had come to ‘greet’ him. As far as he could tell, it wasn’t octopus-guy, nor was it the scarred guy that was seconds away from killing him before, only to give up. So, that left the one that was besides octopus-guy when he punched it.

It rose from the water with a grin, unaffected by Noctis’ disgruntled appearance, and threw something towards him. He only had the time and strength to cover his face as something wet slapped and clung to his arms. When nothing else came, Noctis carefully took whatever had been thrown at him. 

In his hand was a bundle of seaweed, tangled together into one massive clump. There was another squeal from the pool and a splash, and when Noctis looked up, it had vanished.

Noctis put the clump of seaweed down besides him, half-tempted to throw it back into the pool. There wasn’t anything obvious about _why_ he’d been given a massive seaweed clump, unless this was some weird apology gift for trapping him in an underwater cave.

Well, if good ol’ Squeaky over there was expecting a gift in return, it’d have to accept the fact that he wasn’t going anywhere near that damn pool.

As if it could hear his thoughts, Squeaky’s head breached the surface once more with its increasingly familiar squeal. This time, it drifted closer to the edge of the pool, with its back facing Noct. There was the sound of water rapidly draining from something and it spun around, placing what looked like a wicker basket onto the floor. Squeaky clicked a few times and then backed away with a cheerful grin.

Noctis’ scowl deepened. “If you think I’m going anywhere near that, then you’re high.”

Squeaky, obviously, did not understand. Or maybe it chose to not understand. Regardless, it drifted away until its back was pressed against the wall furthest from Noctis, its arms spread out as it treaded water. The cheerful grin was stayed firmly planted on its face, and it just… drifted in the water.

Noctis carefully clambered to his feet, refusing to take his eyes off of Squeaky. For a brief moment, he let the craziness of the situation wash over him again—he was trapped in an underwater cave, he just had a clump of seaweed thrown at him and was given a basket of some sort, and was calling his fucking merman captor _Squeaky,_ of all things—but he collected himself and took the few shaky steps towards the pool.

The merman hadn’t moved from his spot, and the water appeared still when its tail did not move, so Noctis felt safe enough to look at the basket. It looked like an off-color kind of wicker, and the water seemed to roll off, instead of being absorbed. Within it laid a large amount of oval-shaped rocks and about five different crabs. Their shells were all different colors, and they were all alive and scrabbling to get out of their temporary cage.

It was no secret that Noctis was a picky eater. He detested a large number of vegetables, and there were often discussions of what Noctis would accept as a bribe to eat even a few pieces of broccoli for dinner. He really wasn’t picky when it came to meats, however. He’d eat anything from an animal without complaint, especially seafood. Fish were a regular part of his diet, partially because he caught so many and eating something  _ he _ caught always filled him with a sense of pride.

However, he wasn’t about to eat raw meat, especially when he was cold and sick. He couldn’t create a fire to cook, let alone keep him warm, and vomiting up whatever food he had left in him would probably not be a good idea. What was it that all those survivalists said? The human body can survive nearly two weeks without food, but only a couple days without water? Well, he didn’t feel hungry, so that was either a cause for concern, or a good sign that he wasn’t immediately dying from starvation.

So, his main concern right now was finding a clean source of water. Maybe he could drink his own pee and hope that would last him a while. He certainly couldn’t boil the water from the pool, and drinking saltwater wasn’t going to help matters at all. Not only would it make him feel thirstier, there were probably a massive amount of germs in there that he wouldn’t be able to fight off. He certainly wasn’t a germaphobe, but with these kinds of circumstances, it was stupid to not be careful.

A series of clicks made Noctis startle, and he saw that Squeaky had drawn closer. It floated in the middle of the pool, head tilted just enough make it appear innocent. Noctis took three large steps back and kept his body tense, ready to fight it if he needed to.

But Squeaky only rolled its eyes and swam to the basket, reaching in to pull out one of the oval stones. It fiddled with it, adjusting its grip, before abruptly slamming it against the cave floor. There was a sharp _crack_ and Noctis jumped back. The stone had split down the middle, displaying a kind of slimy, cream-colored insides. With a grin, Squeaky grabbed the edge of the pool and lifted itself out of the water, just enough to expose an odd hunch on its back, as it offered Noctis the oyster.

…Yeah he wasn’t going to go near the pool at the moment. He was just going to sit down and blame the weakness in his legs on overexerting his sick body.

Squeaky pouted and cracked the oyster open a bit more, tilting its head back and chowing down. Noctis’ stomach let out a little grumble at the sight, and he crossed his arms over it, doing his best to ignore the pitiful look Squeaky was giving him.

When nothing happened, it let out a low grumble and pushed the basket closer to Noctis. He winced at the sound and inched a bit further back, now feeling the familiar comfort of cool stone pressing against his back. _“Bonvolu manĝi.”_

“You do realize that I can’t understand you, right?” Noctis sighed. “Like, for all I know you’re calling me a slut.”

_“Nur... bonvolu manĝi ion._ Bonvolu.” Noctis winced at Squeaky’s pleading tone. He felt an uncomfortable tugging in his heart, but he couldn’t pinpoint the reason why. _“Vi timigas min. Vi ĉiuj timigas nin.”_

There was a sudden flash of anger deep within Noctis’ chest, and he pulled himself together and sat a bit straighter, glaring at Squeaky. “Who the _hell_ do you think you a—”

His voice cracked as his throat seized, and Noctis hunched over as he began to cough. It rattled in his bones and squeezed his chest, stealing away all his air and left him gasping and hunched over. When he felt like he wasn’t suffocating, he chanced looking up at Squeaky.

Its smile had fallen into a concerned frown. It strained to lift itself out of the pool completely, abandoning any sense of caution and care as it struggled to get closer Noctis. He almost felt sympathy for it, watching it struggle to pull its lower body out of the water.

Almost.

“I don’t need your pity.” Noctis snarled. His voice was congested and raspy, and it must have sounded pretty damn similar to a growl, because Squeaky almost immediately backed off, falling into the water without any grace. “I don’t… I don’t want to be here. I want to go _home.”_

Home, which was miles away. Home, which was nowhere near the water. Home, where he could get these stupid pieces of jewelry off him and forget this whole thing had ever happened.

Home, which he couldn’t get to because he was too much of a coward to even dip his toes into water, let alone swim.

Noctis’ throat tightened, though not because he was about to have another coughing fit. Tears bit at his eyes, and Noctis closed them tight and buried his head in his arms, trying to keep his breaths even and shove his emotions into the furthest corner of his mind. Crying wouldn’t help him. He was going to waste whatever water he still had in his system from doing it, over something that would only make him feel worse.

A low growl came from the vague direction of the pool, but Noctis couldn’t bring himself to look up. The sounds continued—quick squeals, crooning trills, and growls that dipped and rose and, sometimes, turned into snarls—and eventually Noctis looked up.

They were all there. Squeaky, the octopus, and the scarred-guy, hovering around the center of the pool and… talking to each other? At least, that’s what it looked like. He certainly couldn’t understand them, he wasn’t fluent in animal noises. Since Squeaky had his back turned to him and since the other two had the expressive skill of brick walls, he couldn’t exactly gauge what they were all talking about.

Almost in sync, they all turned to look at him. Squeaky was the only one that had any real expression on his face: concern and something like guilt. The other two were, of course, stony-faced. The scarred one looked like he just ate fish shit.

Noctis glared and gave them the middle finger before adjusting how he was sitting and ignoring them. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply—

—And descended into another coughing fit. This time, he covered his mouth, trying to muffle the sound, but it still echoed in the small space. In the middle of one of his coughs, something wet splashed into his hand, and he looked down at his palm to see a thick collection of snot. He shuddered and wiped his hand on the cave floor, resisting the urge to hurl. He  _ really _ didn’t feel good, and the odds of him just having a simple cold were dwindling. This was something else, probably something worse.

A trill drew his attention away from himself, and he jerked into awareness. The octopus merman (god, that was still such a weird thing to think about and accept as  _ real) _ had drawn closer while he was coughing, and had crossed about half the distance between Noctis and the pool. Its tentacles sprawled out in front of it, pulling it closer, and Noctis shivered as he remembered the suckers pulling at his skin, the teeth against his neck.

“Fuck no.” Noctis rasped, his voice completely wrecked, and managed to draw himself to his feet. He put most of his weight on the wall behind him and got pretty far, despite the exhaustion clinging to his limbs, making him sway on unsteady footing.

_“Restu malsupren."_ The scarred one growled, its voice deep and rumbling like thunder, and Noctis nearly fell right on his ass, almost collapsing. His legs were shaking now, but it wasn’t because of his exhaustion. It was like they’d been turned to jelly, lax and unresponsive. A static-like sensation had settled in his bones, though it didn’t hurt.

And still, the octopus drew nearer, albeit slightly slower, watching him carefully.

Out of sheer stubbornness, Noctis pressed his arms against the wall behind him and tried to draw himself up. To his surprise, it was working pretty damn well, and he managed to get a solid grasp on a small rock outcropping to help keep him propped into a slightly-upright position. He glared at the octopus, half-tempted to give it a smug smile at his success.

_“Pardonu…”_ The octopus muttered as another, stronger wave of… _something_ slammed into Noctis.  His vision blurred, and his legs gave beneath him, refusing to even twitch. The odd, jelly-like feeling spread from his legs until it had nearly encompassed his whole body, stopping just beneath his neck. His fingers twitched sporadically, but other than that, his body might as well have been paralyzed.

Panic stirred in his chest. Before, when the octopus thing was on top of him, he could potentially blame his body’s weakness on some kind of paralyzing chemical that it injected with skin-to-skin contact, or the shock from falling into the pool. But nothing was touching him now, and he  _ definitely _ hadn’t gone in the pool, but he was almost completely paralyzed.

Seeing the opening, the octopus drew closer at a faster pace, reaching out to Noctis with a small smile.

Noctis _hated_ that smile. If he could, he would smack it right off its sharp face. In fact, looking closer, there was a purple bruise on its cheek, where Noctis had punched it yesterday. The sight gave him a bit of comfort: he might not be in control, but he definitely wasn’t powerless against these things.

Well… maybe not right now, but he _could_ fight back.

When the octopus was directly in front of him, Noctis glared and tensed his shoulders as well as he could. He didn’t have any way to protect himself, limbs still heavy and unresponsive, so he’d much rather look the thing in the eye and hope that intimidation would be enough to scare it off.

Unaffected, the octopus carefully placed one of its hands on his shoulder and pulled him away from the wall, closer to it. Noctis tried to pull away, but nothing responded, and he could only grumble as he was carefully maneuvered. One of its searching hands pressed against his back, only to jerk away, as if it’d been burned. When it touched him again, it was to pull Noctis onto its back and start moving towards the pool.

“Just so you know,” Noctis growled from his prone position, his chin resting on its shoulder. “I’m calling you ‘Grabby’ from here out.”

‘Grabby’ didn’t say anything, though he did huff under Noctis’ weight. He wasn’t being carried, exactly, more like he was being dragged. If he could, Noctis would be digging his heels into the ground to try and prevent what was going to happen.

But he couldn’t. In less than a minute, he and Grabby were at the edge of the pool, and Noctis was genuinely struggling to move and get away. This was about ten times worse than every other time he’d been near water in the past few days. At least then, he had the safety of being able to swim back to the surface. Now, he knew that if he was put in the water, he’d sink, _fast,_ and drown.

The three creatures growled and clicked at each other, Squeaky looking more and more miserable as they ‘conversed’. Eventually, it sighed and swam closer to Noctis, who watched the creature move warily. Squeaky grabbed the edge of the pool and pushed itself up until it could lean forward with only one arm supporting it. With its free hand, Squeaky reached up and carded its fingers through his hair.

“What are you—?”

_ “D-Dormi…” _

The jelly-like sensation in his limbs changed, now becoming loose and heavy and impossible to lift. Before, Noctis might have been able to move, or support his weight if he was propped up. Now, they felt like dead weights as they laid limp against Grabby’s back, dangling at his sides, from his hips. A pleasant buzzing settled over his mind, and Noctis’s eyes drifted, about to shut. He was so, _so_ tired, and he was right against something so warm, maybe it wouldn’t hurt to… to close his eyes—

“No!” Noctis mumbled, gritting his teeth and shaking his head somehow, breathing harder as he tried to pull himself together. That word—dormi—hadn’t one of them said that when he fell off the dock? And-and then he woke up in the cave, with no memory of anything after that, so…

“You are _not,”_ Noctis growled at Squeaky with all his strength, hazy eyes narrowed in a glare. “Going to make me—"

_ “Dormi.”  _

Maybe it was the way it was said, maybe it was because it said it a second time, but Noctis felt his eyes drifting closed once more. He tried to fight back, to stay awake, but it was like someone tied two ton weights to his eyelids, and it was… was…

Noctis fell unconscious before he could get out a word of protest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact! The first time I saw an oyster, I didn’t know it was an oyster. I genuinely thought it was just a large collection of weirdly shaped rocks with cracks running down the side. I cracked it open (with my bare hands. 0/10 would not do it again) and was subsequently disgusted by what was inside.
> 
> And yes, poor Noct :( He was bound to get sick eventually, if not from his lack of food and water, then from some sort of illness. As for what the illness is, I’ll let you guys guess! Here’s a list of Noct’s symptoms, in case it wasn’t clear:  
> \- Fatigue/exhaustion  
> \- Loss of appetite  
> \- Hot flashes  
> \- Cold flashes  
> \- Coughing with phlegm or pus
> 
> While the first two symptoms could just be blamed on how Noctis normally acts, as well as the lack of any viable sources of food, the second half of the list indicates a serious medical problem. Don’t worry, despite the Merbros lack of knowledge concerning humans, they aren’t completely ignorant. Even they know that something wrong with him physically, and ‘Squeaky’ knows that he’s not doing that well emotionally, either.
> 
>  
> 
> **Translations:**
> 
>  
> 
> Bonvolu manĝi. = Please eat.  
> Nur... bonvolu manĝi ion. Bonvolu. = Just… please eat something. Please.  
> Vi timigas min. Vi ĉiuj timigas nin. = You’re scaring me. You’re scaring all of us.  
> Restu malsupren. = Stay down.  
> Pardonu… = Sorry…  
> Dormi. = Sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Met your mythical mer-boyfriend’s in-law while exhausted because of your pneumonia and delirious on healing magic, and then get a nice warm hug.
> 
> (AKA this chapter is being posted now because I, like Noctis, am sick and wish for death)

Noctis woke up sometime later, completely disoriented and his stomach twisting itself into knots. Blurry eyes opened to see endless blue race past him, flashes of something bright above him, around him, strands of his hair waving in front of his face because he was… he was moving…

And he slipped down, down into sleep like it was a second skin.

* * *

When he woke again, it was because of the furious snarling somewhere in front of him. He managed to pry his eyes open again, breathing slowly, deeply, as he saw the blurry form of the scarred creature’s tail lashing as it growled at someone. He was resting against something warm, something sold, and he pressed into it a bit more with a sigh. His chest felt full. Heavy.

He coughed, trying to clear his lungs and rouse himself further. His head felt like it had been stuffed to the brim with cotton, then had a bucket of water poured in to weigh it down and compress it, only to add more and repeat the process until he couldn’t think at all. He… he had been in the cave, and then someone came up from the pool.

“Dammit.” Noctis’ head perked up, because he didn’t say that. Someone else just swore. Someone else just spoke _English—_

Long, thin fingers brushed the hair out of his face, ran through the tangles and knots, gently scratched behind his ears, and Noctis relaxed, mind growing fuzzy once more. He tried to fight it—really, he did—but it was just so hard to stay awake, to focus long enough to get his thoughts in order.

And he was out like a light.

* * *

Waking the third time, Noctis felt like he’d been pumped full of helium, floating carefree and weightless. His entire body felt sore and disgustingly _wet,_ he could barely breathe, but for some reason he didn’t care about that.

Somehow, he managed to open his eyes, feeling sleep crust at the corners. Circling his body were thin wisps of orange light. They hovered around him, twisting and curling like strings caught in a wave, and he almost mistook them for strings. Then he noticed the odd after images when they moved, and the faint light they gave off, and okay, they weren’t strings.

…He wanted to touch them. Really bad. But he couldn’t really feel his arm to move it, and that was okay, and he was okay, and he could just float here until he _wasn’t_ okay. Or, maybe, when he was completely okay, he’d stop floating, and he could touch the orange things.

Maybe.

“You awake?” Noctis’ gaze slid away from the orange string-things to the person hovering above him. His skin was wrinkled, and his hair was cut short and gray. Like almost every guy he’d ever met since he moved here, he was shirtless, though he did have a belt with a cloth pouch around his waist. His lower body ended with a long shark tail, which gently swayed side to side.

“Y’ve got scars.” Noctis slurred, his tongue feeling like a brick of lead. “Like me.”

The man raised one of eyebrows, only to shake his head and sigh. “Yeah, the healers told me you’d be out of it. I don’t remember my first time being healed, but Valeria told me how I’d flirt with anything that moved, including the kelp.”

“Was she pretty?”

The man chuckled. “Yeah, she sure was. Unless you’re talking about the kelp, then no.”

Noctis didn’t know what they were talking about, but talking was nice. The sounds and the vibration from his chest as he talked felt nice, and it was better than silence. He _hated_ silence.

Which what was happening now.

“M’name’s Noct.”

“And I’m Clarus.”

Silence.

“This’s awkward.”

Clarus chuckled, drifting to the right and down, out of Noctis’ line of sight. He _could_ have turned his head, but he didn’t think that would be a good idea. “That it is. But you probably won’t remember this conversation.”

“Oh.” That was probably good. “Why?”

Something swished above Noctis’ head, making his hair fall in front of his eyes, and he was _fascinated_ by how it moved. He wanted to grab and twist them, see how they’d move, but his arms were still too heavy. “You’re essentially high on morphine right now. Once you’re healed and the pneumonia is out of your system, you’ll be weaned off the magic until you can function normally. Unfortunately, since the magic is new to you, it tends to make you black out. I think this is the first time you’ve been awake enough to talk since my idiot of a son brought you here with his mates.”

Noctis frowned, clawing at his memories and trying to pull himself together. Sleep was tempting, _so_ tempting, but he wanted to talk more. He didn’t want the silence to return. He didn’t want to be alone again. “Your son?”

“Yes, _Gladiolus.”_ He practically growled the name. “I love him, he’s a wonderful son, more than I can ask for, but the way he treated this situation… the way he treated _you…_ He said he had it handled, but then he comes and tells me that something’s wrong with you. I ask him, ‘well, where is he?’ And he tells me he put you in a goddamned _cave.”_

“I don’t like the cave.”

“Of course you don’t, because my idiotic son thought it would be a _great_ idea to shove you in there, like a captured bride!” He was growling now, unable to stop the involuntary sound. “No, don’t ask your father about how to handle your human mate! Don’t check with any elders, or try to find the plates we have on humans! _Instead,_ let’s improvise, and end up nearly kill him!”

“Squeaky was nice.”

Clarus drifted back into his line of sight, an amused smirk on his face. “‘Squeaky’?”

“Blonde.” Noctis clarified, struggling to remember just what everyone looked like. “Grabby was kinda mean.”

“I would say that I apologize for their behavior, but since I doubt you’ll remember this, and Gladiolus will probably talk to you before I do, I’ll let him try to explain his dumbassery. Just know that I don’t condone what they did.” Clarus disappeared again, and Noctis was left there to float and listen and breathe. His eyes, though locked on the calm, waving motion of the orange threads, started to drift shut.

“Hey.” Noctis managed to open his eyes. Clarus was above him again, though he was closer than when they were talking. He held up his hand, holding a spiked, violet ball-thing in his hands. “While you’re up, let’s try and get some food into you.”

He frowned. “What is it?”

“Sea urchin.” Clarus drifted closer, digging his fingers into the thing he was holding—what was it called again? Sea urchin? Seeeeea Urrrrrchiiiiin. The name was weird and fun to say, if he was saying it, which he wasn't but it still sounded funny—and picked something orange in his fingertips. “I know it doesn’t look that delectable, but it’s probably the easiest thing you can eat besides pre-chewed seaweed. And I doubt you’d want to… what is it, ‘swap spit’?”

Noctis made a very disgusted expression, but accepted the weird food given to him. He _was_ hungry, and it wasn’t a vegetable, so he was more than fine with what he was eating. It tasted… kinda sweet, and dissolved on his tongue, and he easily accepted another when Clarus offered it.

Before he knew it, Clarus was pulling away and putting the sea urchin back in his pouch. He kind of wanted to eat more, because sea urchin was actually stupidly tasty, but his eyes were already drifting shut. Clarus said something above him, something that might’ve been teasing, but at this point Noctis was already falling, slipping down into sleep.

* * *

He didn’t open his eyes when he stirred again. Instead, he struggled to breathe, feeling like there was a loaded pickup truck parked on his chest. Each breath he took sounded raspy and rattled in his throat, and he winced in pain as he coughed.

_“Ĝi pasis kelkajn tagojn…”_ Someone spoke on his right.

“Pneumonia _faros tion al vi..”_ Said someone else. His voice was familiar, he’d talked to him recently, hadn’t he? What was his name…? _“Mian fratinon prenis monaton por kuraci kiam ŝi estis malsana.”_

_“Ni ne sciis ke li malsaniĝus.”_ The first voice whimpered. _“Ni ne sciis ke tio okazos.”_

Someone sighed. _“Mi scias. Sed ankoraŭ, alproksimiĝante al la situacio kiel vi faris tri…”_

_ “Ni batas. Granda tempo.”  _

_“Do vi faros ĝin al li.”_ Unable to hold it back anymore, Noctis coughed, curling slightly as the motion shook him. When he was done, his breathing didn’t come with that sharp bite of pain, and he felt his body grow loose and limp as his consciousness faded out once more. _“Venu, estas aferoj, kiujn ni devas diskuti…”_

* * *

When Noctis woke up for the fifth time, he was finally, one-hundred-percent awake.

Well, more like sixty percent. He was never truly aware in those first few minutes of being awake, trying to adjust from ‘blissfully resting’ to ‘oh god the sun is here and it is burning my eyes’. He acted like a zombie, according to his father, and Noctis’ couldn’t really disagree. He certainly _felt_ like he was dead, and he’d love to go to sleep again.

But he felt restless. The back of his knees had this tension in them, like he _needed_ to move, but his mind wanted nothing more than five more minutes. He kept his eyes closed in the vain hope that he’d fall back asleep, but it became clear that he wasn’t about to drift off anytime soon. With a low groan, Noct carefully opened his eyes, blearily looking around… wherever he was, because he certainly wasn’t in the cave.

And, he realized after a few seconds of hazy observation, he wasn’t alone. He flailed upon seeing the long shark tail, attached to a very built person’s chest with scars, and holy shit, it was the guy that wanted to probably rip him in half the other day in the cave! _Wonderful._

Then he realized there was nothing underneath him, or around him keeping him upright. He was suspended in mid-air, except last he checked the creatures were pretty screwed if they went on land, so—

So that meant—

Noctis placed one hand against his chest and the other against his throat, taking a few breaths. He could _kind of_ feel a difference, like he was breathing in incredibly dense air, but that was it. There were no other problems, which was good because it meant whatever he was sick with was gone.

But that also meant that _he was breathing underwater._

The low growl in front of him drew Noctis away from his oncoming panic attack, only for him to flinch away (as best as he could because he was under-freaking-water and he couldn’t exactly move that well) when he saw how close the scarred creature was. There was only about two feet between them, and Noctis tried to pull his legs close to him to maximize that distance.

The creature made a pained expression and drifted away, looking away. Its fingers twitched at its sides, and it seemed to struggle with what it wanted to do before it crossed his arms over its chest. It opened its mouth, only to shut it a moment later, biting its lip.

Noctis frowned and, noticing how he was slowly falling backwards, he moved his feet slightly so that he was somewhat upright. He… he really was underwater, wasn’t he? Right in the heart of this thing’s territory.

But he hadn’t been ripped to shreds yet, and he’d apparently been left alone long enough to recover from whatever he’d gotten sick with, despite being weak and completely out of it.

He didn’t quite know how to take that, and what that meant, but he was alive right now, and he wasn’t going to purposefully try and fuck that up.

_“Ĉu mi povas…”_ It sighed, and it bashfully met Noctis’ gaze. It uncrossed its arms, holding them out and exposing its chest. _“Ĉu mi povas brakumi vin?”_

Noctis tried to figure out what it was asking for, what the hidden motive was, but he was too tired to fully care. Even though he felt a lot better, there was still that lingering feeling of sickness, and he still wanted to sleep. So he closed his eyes and didn’t give a response, though he did tighten his grip on his legs.

He flinched as the thing’s arms wrapped around him, pulling him close to the creature’s chest. He refused to uncurl out of his almost-ball shape, but the creature didn’t force him to do anything. Instead, Noctis was moved so that the side of his head rested against the creature’s chest, his ear pressed just above its heart to hear the slow _th-thump, th-thump_ of its heart.

_This was it,_ his brain couldn’t help but think as he waited for the killing blow, for teeth to rip into his throat and to see his blood spread around him.

But nothing happened, He was just… held. Gently. Pressed against a warm chest that was pure goddamn muscle, and it… it felt nice.

_“Mi pardonu.”_ The arms around him tightened, but not enough to crush him. And he… he didn’t know how to process this complete flip in attitude. The first time he’d ever seen this thing, it looked like it wanted to rip him to shreds, and feel his shreds to its family for dinner. But now — now it was hugging him, holding him close but afraid to do much more in case he broke or something. _“Mi do, do pardonu.”_

He didn’t know what the hell was going on. He really, _really_ didn’t. But hell, he hadn’t known what was happening ever since he fell off the dock a few days ago. So, for probably the first time since he’d woken up in the cave, Noctis shut off his brain and leaned into the hug, accepting the comfort he was given without any complaint.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So how many of you can tell I've never written Clarus before?
> 
> This chapter’s a bit on the short-side, but that’s because there’s only so much you can write about when your main character is sick, high, and struggling to manage his panic as he casually floats in an underwater bedroom while hugging a shark merman that wanted to rip out his throat a few days ago.
> 
> For any of those who participated in the guessing game, congrats if you guessed pneumonia! As someone who’s had pneumonia, I can sympathise with Noctis’ stubbornness considering his well-being. I got sick when I was… six? Seven? Either way, I started to feel sick in the middle of class and let me tell you it was not fun. 
> 
> Also _please_ let me know if the little hoverboxes aren't working for translations and/or you see a grammatical error or something. Seriously, I'm sick as hell and I'm probably going to miss stuff while posting this lmao.
> 
> **Translations:**
> 
> Ĝi pasis kelkajn tagojn… = It’s been a couple days…  
> Pneumonia faros tion al vi. = Pneumonia will do that to you.  
> Mian fratinon prenis monaton por kuraci kiam ŝi estis malsana. = Took my sister a month to heal when she was sick.  
> Ni ne sciis ke li malsaniĝus. = We didn’t know that he’d get sick.  
> Ni ne sciis ke tio okazos. = We didn’t know this would happen.  
> Mi scias. Sed ankoraŭ, alproksimiĝante al la situacio kiel vi faris tri… = I know. But still, approaching the situation as you three did…  
> Ni batas. Granda tempo. = We messed up. Big time.  
> Do vi faros ĝin al li. = So you’ll make it up to him.  
> Venu, estas aferoj, kiujn ni devas diskuti… = Come on, there are things we need to discuss…  
> Ĉu mi povas... = Can I…  
> Ĉu mi povas brakumi vin? = Can I hug you?  
> Mi pardonu. = I’m sorry.  
> Mi do, do pardonu. = I’m so, so sorry.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Noctis tries to figure out when his life turned into a messed up rom-com film, the bros try to understand what a ‘rohm-cohm feell-mm’ is with mixed results.

Noctis didn’t know how long he and the creature—whom he’d mentally dubbed ‘Growly’—hugged, but it was long enough to where Noctis had fallen into a pleasant daze. He didn’t bother thinking, allowing himself to bask in the ridiculous amount of warmth around him, and it was easily the best he’d felt in… a while, really. Probably even before he moved.

The moment was broken by a long trill. Noctis startled, snapping out of his daze and gently pushing away from Growly’s hold. Though it looked vaguely upset, it didn’t protest or pull him back. It let him paddle away until his hand rested against the wall of the room he was in, and turned towards Grabby and Squeaky, who had entered the room, and began to converse with each other.

Given the reprieve Noctis observed the room he was in. The only way in and out of the room he was in was a door-shaped hole on his left, currently guarded by Grabby. Set into the walls every few feet were round, light blue stones that gave off light, allowing him to see. There were some pieces of furniture scattered throughout the room, or underwater equivalents, at the very least. What was probably a desk with various drawers was on the wall opposite from Noctis, and beneath him was a raised slab that might’ve been a bed.

A few clicks came from his right, and Noctis looked to see that Squeaky had drawn closer during his observation. It had gone around Growly and more or less ignored whatever conversation was happening between it and Grabby. The two of them watched them bicker, share a glance at the two of them, then leave the room.

He unintentionally startled when he felt Squeaky’s hand press against his shoulder. Squeaky made some weird chitters and tried to cover its obvious grin with its free hand. Noctis glared—even if he couldn’t speak fluent… whatever language they spoke, it wasn’t too hard to tell that it was laughing at him.

“Thanks.” He muttered. His voice sounded _weird:_ It had this odd reverberation to it, not unlike hearing his voice when speaking into a fan, but a bit deeper in pitch. Squeaky shook its head with a grin and tapped his nose twice, smiling when Noctis scrunched his nose and tried to pull away, only to be stopped by the wall once again.

_ “Mi volas provi ion.” _ Squeaky said, like Noctis could understand. Still, he didn’t say anything in protest, nor flinch away as Squeaky drew closer. Out of all the creatures he’d met, he trusted Squeaky the most. It had yet to do anything to explicitly harm him, and had even wanted to help him out, if bringing him the crabs and oysters were any indication.

However, he certainly didn’t expect Squeaky to kiss him.

At first, neither of them moved, though Noctis kept still mostly out of shock. He didn’t know what to do—was he supposed to push it away? Reciprocate? Where did he put his hands? Did he keep them close to try and protect himself as much as he could, or push Squeaky away?

But then Squeaky pressed insistently against his lips, tilting his head a bit more as its fingertips trailed oh-so lightly down his arms. Noctis gasped at the sensation, and Squeaky took that as an invitation to add tongue into the mix and…

And _god,_ Noctis _liked_ it.

It had been… an almost unhealthy amount of time since he’d gotten any action, probably not since sophomore year of high school, and that was a brief fling that ended after a week with some cheerleader. He moaned and let his body relax, allowing Squeaky to take the lead. It certainly knew what it was doing—pulling Noctis closer and tracing indistinct patterns across his arms, pushing up his shirt, tracing the waistline of his shorts—and dammit he was getting hard. He could feel that warmth settling in his gut, threatening to consume him, and his arms finally moved to grab Squeaky’s biceps. He didn’t know if he wanted to pull closer or push away.

Out of the corner of his eye, Noctis saw a faint glow coming from his bracelet. Thin strands of light weaved around his wrist, traveling up his arm, reaching for his shoulder. Noctis tried to jerk away, but he had nowhere to go, pinned between the wall and Squeaky as the light continued upwards. He could feel it brushing against his skin, creating a sharp, brief pain before it was soothed away by gentle warmth.

It hovered around his neck, circling it and tightening, the pain no longer ‘brief’ but linger, sparking along his neck like a collar. Abruptly, the light darted up his cheekbones and wrapped around his ears, tenderly caressing them before diving _in._ Noctis’ back arched at the weird sensation, his shout muffled by Squeaky’s lips. They’d long since stopped kissing, but Squeaky kept Noctis close, refusing to budge. Despite its benign appearance, Squeaky was freakishly strong, and Noctis was forced to breathe through his nose, lest he pass out.

So instead, Noctis thrashed as best as he could. His ears felt like they were being stabbed by a thousand needles. When it reached his mind, it settled and buzzed like an irate hornet’s nest, and dammit, it _hurt._ Noctis shouted and slapped his hands against Squeaky’s chest, trying to push away and stop whatever was happening to him.

And then it vanished. The whiplash from the lack of sensation caused Noctis to freeze, and Squeaky must have taken that as a good thing because it let go of his arms and finally, _finally_ stopped kissing him. It pulled away panting but, after a few seconds, it opened its eyes and gave Noctis a tired grin. “Hey.”

Noctis blinked owlishly. He probably looked like a fish with how his mouth opened and closed, because Squeaky wheezed and ducked its head, shoulders shaking with barely-suppressed giggles. “I—oh, goddess, I’m sorry, but your _face!_ Honestly, I thought you were going to punch me after all of this— _pft…!”_

He… Didn’t know how to process this. Noctis watched as Squeaky continued with its giggle fit, dumbfounded at what he was hearing. He pinched his arm and winced at the pain, and let out a shaky breath. _Okay, not dreaming…_

Noctis waited for Squeaky to calm down and give him a shaky grin before he finally spoke up, pointing at his ears. “H-How can I…?”

“Understand me?” Noctis nodded. “It’s… uh… kind of hard to explain? I don’t know the specific terms and everything, but basically the magic in our Animas lets us talk to each other.”

“Really.” Noctis kept his voice as neutral as possible. “And it does this through passionate, suddenly painful makeout sessions because…?”

“Most magic doesn’t hurt! Unless you use it to harm people…” Squeaky trailed off with a nervous giggle. “But, uh, as for why, I don’t know. I didn’t make the rules for this kinda stuff.”

His mind flooded with questions (rules for what, specifically? What is _this?_ Why did you bring me here, and to the cave?) but voices coming from down the hall stopped him. Squeaky turned to look at the doorway, and with a loud _swish,_ Growly swam into the room, displaying its teeth as it snarled viciously at Grabby, who followed behind. “A Goddess-damned _kiss._ Fuck’s sake, we might as well tie him down with chains and throw him in the dungeons, because there’s no way we’re going to—”

“Hey!” Squeaky’s eyes flicked between the shark and Noct. “Ixnay on the ungeonday!”

“Why? it’s not like he can understand us! Let’s just talk about how cute his pudgy little stomach is, because we—”

“You think my stomach’s cute?” Noctis blurted, because yes, _that_ was what he needed to take away from that brief conversation. Apparently, Growly thought his stomach was cute. No need to linger on the whole dungeon and chains thing, his cuteness should be the focus of the conversation. Of _course!_

Like before, at the pool, they all turned to look at him. Noctis wanted nothing more than to swim back to the cave and starve to death, because that would be a more respectable way to die than the sheer embarrassment of this very moment.

“I’m assuming that, since he could comprehend and create a response to Gladio’s rant, that you managed to do it?” Grabby questioned, and Squeaky nodded.

“Sorry.” Growly managed to squeak out, its face burning crimson. “About the… the stomach thing.”

_This is your chance,_ Noctis thought. _You can yell at them, demand answers, get back at them, be rightfully aggressive and show them that you aren’t some exoctic pet that they can throw in a cave and expect to roll over and be some form of eye candy._

“It’s okay.” He said instead, and he wanted to slam his face into the wall in the hopes that the resulting head trauma would kill him instantly. The seconds that followed were tense and awkward, and Noctis fiddled with the end of his shirt, just to have something to do other than stare at the other three in the room.

“We need to talk.” Grabby broke the silence, gesturing at the slab beneath him. Squeaky hummed in agreement and put its hands on Noctis’ shoulders, pushing him down with so much force that Noctis flailed and nearly did a backflip. Squeaky mumbled an apology, lips twitching as he suppressed a smile, and let Noctis right himself before resuming to bring him down to the slab, though with less strength than before.

When Noctis managed to stay seated on the slab of rock beneath him (he had to hold onto the edge because he always felt that tug of buoyancy trying to bring him up to the ceiling) the mermen hovered around him, unsure of where to start. Despite the many, _many_ questions he had, he didn’t want to start the conversation. He wanted them to start, to explain and, most importantly, apologize.

“I suppose we should start with the less complicated issues first. My name is Ignis,” Grabby—now Ignis—pointed at Growly. “He is, as you might have guessed, Gladio. And finally, the dolphin hovering at your side is Prompto.”

The newly-dubbed Prompto swam in front of him, waving as he went. “So, now that that’s out of the way, what do we call you?”

“Real tactful, Prompto.” Gladio muttered. Prompto turned to the shark with an exaggerated pout, but didn’t make any stinging rebuttals. Gladio rolled his eyes and shook his head fondly. Noctis watched the interaction carefully, feeling like he was missing something important.

“...Noctis.” He said. Prompto turned to him with a grin so bright it could outshine the sun, and the other two’s expressions softened into something human.

“Noctis.” Ignis repeated with a very faint, almost imperceptible smile. “Well, onto the next topic.”

Ignis carefully extended his wrist, showing Noctis the gold arm cuff that delicately rested against his skin. Beside him, Gladio reached up and grabbed the silver chain necklace around his neck, and Prompto gently shook his arm, letting his bronze bracelet catch the light of the room. He looked at all of them carefully, and his stomach twisted into a knot when he realized that they were almost exact replicas of the jewelry on his own body. They were all wearing matching sets, and for some reason, the thought made him feel distinctly uncomfortable. “Do you know what these are?”

“Uh…” He shrugged as best as he could while still holding onto the slab. “Fancy pieces of jewelry?”

Gladio growled—actually growled, making a guttural noise that reverberated strangely in the water—and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Fucking hell.”

“Hey,” Prompto lightly smacked the back of Gladio’s head lightly with a slight pout. “No cursing, not right now.”

“Gentlemen.” Ignis stopped them before they could progress, and turned his focus back to Noctis. “These are called Animas. We create them when we are young, when our magic is still budding, and they help guide us to find those who will be in our _pod_ . I believe the closest word you have to that is _fah-me-lee.”_

“So… what?” Noctis tilted his head. “You adopted me or something?”

Ignis’ face scrunched up weirdly, but he gave a hesitant nod. “I… believe so.”

“Well, all of that is _great,_ really, but I need to go home at one point or another. Y’know. On the surface.”

Gladio growled, this time his tail aggressively slashed through the water as he moved around the room in what had to be the merman equivalent of pacing. To Noctis, it looked more like he was chasing his tail more than anything as he made sharp turns above them. Prompto huffed and rolled his eyes, leaning back as he watched Gladio work himself in circles.

Ignis sighed. “It’s… not that simple. These bonds, our Animas, are unbreakable. You are tied to us, now and forever. From the moment we gave them to you, and you wore them, you have been bound to us.”

Noctis felt the blood slowly drain from his face. That did _not_ sound like a casual, family-friendly type of speech. Instead, it sounded more like…

“Humor me for a second, what do you think ‘adopt’ means?”

“To be bonded by an Anima.”

“To adopt someone means to be taken in by a family. What _you_ just said sounded more like a marriage proposal.”

“Okay, you can’t use _another_ word we don’t know.” Prompto huffed.

“To live the rest of your life with someone, and typically, you have sex.” Noctis ground out refusing to look away from Ignis. “Is _that_ closer to what you meant?”

“We accept people into our pods.” Gladio had stopped swimming above him, but refused to move down to be on eye-level with Noctis. “Sometimes as a mate, sometimes as brothers and sisters, sometimes as sons and daughters. The first one can only be done with an Anima, so if your question is ‘am I now your mate?’, the answer would be yes.”

Noctis felt his stomach flip, and Ignis turned to glare at the shark merman. Even Prompto seemed somewhat perturbed by Gladio’s blunt delivery, and he turned to admonish him with a slightly scandalized “Dude.”

“What?” Gladio shrugged. “The kid wanted an answer, and clearly, we weren’t giving him one.”

“You weren’t supposed to sound like Cor!” Prompto shouted at the same time Ignis harshly rebutted. “A direct approach is possibly the worst path we could take in this situation.”

“Well, he has something similar, we know that now. _May-er-ridge_ sounds like the human equivalent of Animas.”

“It’s not.” Noctis found his voice. “I got these things—” He grabbed the necklace and held it up for emphasis, shaking it slightly. “—when I was eight. Marriage doesn’t happen until you’re in your twenties.”

“Well, you’ve got to be close to—”

“With people _you know._ With someone you trust. After a lengthy conversation about it.” Noctis glared and stopped, letting the weight of his words settle before continuing on. “I don’t think any of you met those marks.”

All of them seemed to pull back at the words: Prompto biting at his lip, Ignis refusing to look at Noctis’ face, and Gladio resuming his agitated swimming. Noctis huffed and leaned back, letting the somewhat rough stone rub against the back of his neck. When the silence wore on, Prompto whimpered and made a few distressed clicks as he hesitantly looked up to meet Noctis’ eyes.

“We didn’t want you to leave.” When no one stopped him or interjected, he continued talking. “You—you were gone for so long, and we could only feel you on and off for those first few months, and then you were just _gone,_ none of us could feel you. We thought you might be hibernating, but then a couple years passed with nothing and we thought you were dead, and then you were _here_ and connecting with us so…”

“So you kidnapped me?”

“We didn’t know how to get you to stay,” Ignis, at the very least, looked pained as he attempted to explain their actions. “And, in hindsight, doing so was not the best idea, as we had no clue just what disastrous consequences would follow. We had the best intentions at heart, given our bond, but as we know now, it backfired.”

“But I have no say in this.” Noctis nearly growled, his free hand curling into a fist. “I was _eight,_ and you put a… a _claim_ on me?”

“I—” Ignis paused and, with a slight grimace, looked away. “Yes, we did.”

His anger grew. “I was a kid, I got thrown off a boat, my back got torn to shreds and I was nearly paralyzed, and you all swam up to me and decided to deck me out in jewelry and throw me into a fucking _harem?_ And then—and _then_ —after nine years, I show up, one of you probably scared me off the dock and into the ocean, all of you collaborate and throw me into a cave for ‘safekeeping’, and, what, assume I’ll just roll over? You think I’m just going to accept this?”

“It doesn’t matter if you accept it or not,” Gladio growled. “It’s what our Animas dictated.”

“I don’t care _what_ your stupid necklace says—”

“You _should.”_ Gladio swam closer and, before Noctis could flinch, he jabbed a clawed finger at the center of Noctis’ chest, though not hard enough to pierce the skin. “The Animas are just an extension of _you._ It doesn’t matter if you humans don’t make them, it doesn’t change the fact that your magic reached out for us, _our_ Animas, and we responded to that call.”

_“Gladio.”_ Ignis hissed and frantically tried to tug the shark merman away from Noctis. “You are not making this any easier—”

“That still doesn’t give you the right to rip me away from my home!” Noctis shouted.

“We didn’t ‘rip you away’ from anything!” Gladio yelled right back, shrugging off Ignis’ tentacles without a second glance.

“Do you need me to clarify what ‘kidnapping’ is? Because I’m pretty sure what you did was kidnapping, and in case the language barrier is still in effect here, kidnapping is when you _rip someone away from their home—”_

“You _are_ home!” Gladio roared at him and slammed his fist into the wall besides Noctis’ head, the impact making a disturbing crunching sound as a small wave brushed over Noctis’ cheek. Before, Noctis could have pretended that Gladio (and, by extension, Ignis and Prompto) were human, that pretense had vanished. Gladio’s eyes had become pitch black, and his serrated teeth were on full display as he snarled directly in Noctis’ face.

Noctis’ throat clicked as he swallowed, and he found he couldn’t look away.

“You can’t break an Anima.” Gladio choked out, his voice strained. “You can’t sever that kind of bond, and whether you like it or not, you are bonded with us. All we did was bring you to your new home… with _us.”_

Another tense period of silence passed, filled only by the sound of Gladio panting and Noctis’ slightly panicked breaths. Noctis balled his hands into fists, letting his nails dig into his palms, and tried to meet Gladio’s gaze unwaveringly.

“And who said that I would _ever_ want that?” Noctis’ voice trembled, betraying his inner turmoil despite wanting to appear unaffected. Gladio abruptly pulled his hand away from the wall, and looked at Noctis with this vaguely scandalized expression, as if he couldn’t possibly comprehend what he’d just said.

Gladio snarled once more before spinning and swimming out of the room. Prompto chased after him with a few frantic squeals, and after a moment of hesitation, Ignis followed his two mates, leaving Noctis to his own devices.

“That went _wonderfully.”_ Noctis sighed, stretching out and finally letting his tensed muscles relax. This whole situation was a massive clusterfuck of everything that could’ve gone wrong, and he certainly hadn’t helped matters.

But really, why should he have helped? It was their fault he got thrown in a cave, was an emotional wreck for a good two or three days, and wound up sick. If anyone should be apologizing and making amends, it should be them, not him, and they should be taking him back to the surface. Fuck whatever Gladio had said about this being his ‘new home’, he didn’t want to be anywhere near here.

“I take it that that went well?” Noctis flailed slightly, still not used to the weird buoyancy of being completely submerged, and looked to his left. Hovering in the doorway was an older-looking shark merman, his expression stern as his gaze roved over Noctis.

Noctis glared and looked away, fingers pulling at the wet hem of his shirt. “Unless you’re taking me home, I’d like to be alone.”

“I’ll take that as a yes, then.” The merman drifted closer until he was hovering in front of Noctis, who refused to look at him in the eyes. He sighed and grabbed Noctis’ arm, dragging him up and off the bed with barely any effort. “Come, I’ll answer any questions you have.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly this chapter RUINED ME because as much as I want the boys to get together and be happy, I literally can’t have that happen so suddenly because it would be SUPER unhealthy and unrealistic, especially with everything that’s already happened. Making these emotionally constipated and complex boys talk about their feelings was hard (also, writing an even amount of dialogue between four characters was also hard).
> 
> Unfortunately, this’ll probably be the last time that we see the magical language of Esperanto in this fic. I’m sad to see it go but, at the same time, I’m not unhappy either. Formatting all the little language bits and having to constantly stress about translations is a thing I’d much rather leave in the past.
> 
> Mi volas provi ion. = I want to try something.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Noctis not only gets to go home, but also an apology and a somewhat straight answer.
> 
> Is this chapter well-edited? No. Have I wanted to get this chapter written and published for the better part of five months and figured that Mermay would be the best time to do so? Yes. So you’re getting a shittily edited chapter that’s super filler and was impossible for me to write, just so I can get this story moving (and a second chapter to follow shortly).

The merman kept a tight grip on Noctis’ arm as he guided the two of them down several tunnels, Noctis eventually losing track of where they had come from, and how to get back. They’d stop occasionally as the merman would choose between going down two different tunnels, but he would shoot off before Noctis could pry himself free. He kicked slightly, trying to move alongside the merman to lessen the strain on his arm, but there was no way he could keep up.

Eventually, they arrived at a set of large, ornate stone doors. The merman gave him a calculated look before letting him go, swimming to the doors and giving them a hefty push. As they swung open, the merman did an about face and grabbed Noctis once again, pulling him through. He grit his teeth as his arm was pulled once more, and he was ready to yell at the merman.

The words on his tongue died when they entered the room. It was filled with several bookcases, stacked to the ceiling, the shelves crammed with various items. Hanging in the stagnant waters were several blue orbs of light that casted long, ominous shadows across the walls, barely providing enough light for Noctis to see. 

“Clarus, you in here?” The merman shouted, letting go of Noct’s arm once he dragged the teen further in the room. Noctis spun around, eyes wide as he admired the balls of light dancing through the water above him, and then examined the shelves. While some held random items, a majority of them contained thick stone slabs, stacked evenly next to each other, with foreign symbols scrawled on the edges facing outwards.

_ “Damn,” _  Noctis spun around as best as he could, admiring the tall shelves and the cool, ambient light. He probably looked like an idiot, but dammit, this was one hell of a sight.

“Glad to see you’re conscious.” Said a voice behind Noctis, and he turned his head to see another merman, gray hair cut similarly to a buzz cut. The merman who grabbed him from his room swam a bit behind him, maintaining a respectful distance. “My name is Clarus, and this is Cor.”

“Oh, uh,” Noctis struggled to orient himself properly so that his back wasn’t turned to them, blushing as he struggled. “My name’s Noctis.”

Clarus nodded, a wry smirk on his face. Before Noctis could ask what was so funny, Clarus’ expression fell into something stern. “I would like to start this conversation by apologizing for my son’s behavior, and for not preventing what occurred. They were completely out of line with their actions, and I can only hope for you to have a smooth recovery.”

Noctis blinked, caught off guard by the abrupt change in mood. “Uh, well… I’m okay now, thankfully.”

Cor also drew close, bowing his head. “I’m also offer an apology. Prompto’s behavior falls under my jurisdiction as his guardian, and I did nothing to interfere with what was occurring.”

“It’s…” Noctis trailed off, looking away. It wasn’t  _ fine, _ he knew that, but he also just wanted to go home and forget that this entire thing had ever happened. “What’s gonna happen to them?”

“They are being punished for their actions, I can assure you.” Clarus tapped at one of the slabs on the table and then picked it up. “Ignis is being forced to help organize construction groups to expand Altissia for new inhabitants, Gladiolus is on training duty for new members of the guards for the foreseeable future, and Cor is keeping Prompto from leaving the Altissia for any reason—no hunting parties, no exploration, and no chasing after you when you go home.

“I also have to apologize, again, for letting them see you as you recovered. I assumed that they would properly apologize for their actions, but instead, they acted as bull headed as they did when they brought you to the cave. I should have prevented that as well, and not have given them the benefit of doubt.”

Noctis nodded, but his mind clung to something Clarus said before. “You… said I could go home?”

Cor nodded. “If you’re still feeling sick, you can stay here for another day to make sure you won’t relapse. However, if you’re feeling up for it, Clarus or I can swim you back as close as we can get to your home.”

“I would say to not push yourself—”

“No, I want to go home.” Noctis cut Clarus off. “Please.”

Clarus and Cor eyed him, the two seemingly having a silent conversation before Clarus spoke again. “Alright, then. Let’s get some food in you and get going.”

* * *

Noctis’ food consisted of a barely-cooked fish wrapped in seaweed which, as Clarus explained to him, was essentially the underwater equivalent of a sandwich. It was a bit disgusting, if he’s being honest, but his stomach was practically twisting in on itself for  _ any _ kind of food, so he didn’t complain. Plus, if eating the fish got him out of the city faster, than he’d swallow it whole if he could.

The next step is figuring out how Clarus was bringing him to shore. Cor was still on ‘babysitting duty’ (not Noctis’ words), so that meant he would get one-on-one time with the father of, quite possibly, the most terrifying thing he’d ever seen. They end up doing a sort-of-piggyback carry, with Noctis holding onto Clarus’ shoulders and wrapping his legs around Clarus’ waist, just above his dorsal fin.

It was awkward, to say the least, but it was  _ much _ less awkward than being carried in the mer’s arms. Plus, it was probably more aerodynamic, or whatever the underwater equivalent of that would be. Noctis wanted to get home as fast as possible, and riding on the back of a shark-guy was probably his best bet.

But still. Awkward.

When they left the city, Clarus nodding to a few other mers they passed, Noctis could finally see its splendor. There was a natural mountain of basalt, with marble structures somehow built into it. Noctis could make out a few pillars, placed around half-moon platforms, and barnacle-covered stairs at the very bottom of the mountain. Carved throughout the entire mountain were holes of varying sizes—some large and square, others smaller and circular, barely wide enough for even Noctis to squeeze through. He saw countless mers swimming around it, recognizing a few sharks, a small group of dolphins, and vividly colored fishes, but thankfully no familiar faces.

“Our home’s called Altissia.” Clarus said over his shoulder, pulling Noctis’ gaze away from the mountain. “I know there’s already an Altissia on the surface, but that’s the one man created to appease The Tidemother. Ours was made from the ruins of the first Altissia—the one made to mock the goddess.”

He vaguely remembered from his history classes about how Altissia—the art capital of the world, where Lunafreya now lived to pursue her career in fashion—was built from the ruins of an ancient city. It was destroyed by a massive tsunami, with barely any trace of it left, except for a few crumbling statues and the occasional half-destroyed building. Artwork often depicted a beautiful city cast in sunlight unaware of a massive wall of water about to slam into it, a massive sea serpent following it.

“The Tidemother?” Noctis asked.

“Her name is Leviathan.” Clarus vaguely answered. “An ancient god, supposed to be the mother of all the mers. I’ve seen her.”

“You… _  what?” _

“I’ve seen her.” Clarus looked over his shoulder at Noctis with a faint smirk. “She’s gigantic. I would recommend doing your best to not anger her.”

“I’ll… keep that in mind.” Noctis hummed. For a couple more minutes, there was silence, then Noctis opened his mouth again. “Do you… really not know why they did this?”

He didn’t need to clarify who or what he was specifically talking about, and Clarus knew this all too well. The merman tensed beneath him, but it flooded out of him with a heavy sigh. “I have… theories. As does Cor. Nothing definite, however, as this goes against both our sons’ behaviors.”

A part of Noctis didn’t want to prod, the part of him that insisted that he still be polite and courteous, especially since Clarus was bringing him home. However, that part of him was small, and Noctis was a curious guy by nature. “And those theories would be?”

“Again, nothing concrete,” Clarus began. “But it wasn’t exactly a secret that having an incomplete bond was affecting them throughout the years. Animas are physical things mers make growing up when their magic is developing to give to those who will be their mate. Their magic will naturally reach out to each other, and they’ll exchange their Anima pairs, which allows their magic to develop further. Having an incomplete bond is like… magically stunting their growth.

“As the years went by… it became physically painful. Goddess knows the social isolation they went through because others assumed you’d purposefully left the pod because you didn’t approve of them, not that you were a human. But then there would be days when they wouldn’t lead their rooms because it hurt to swim. Other days, they were hypersensitive to magic, where even brushing up against a sight source could cause minor burns. It became a toll to function, and it got worse when they went through growing pains. Maybe they thought keeping you nearby would lessen the pain they felt, or get rid of it all together.”

Noctis looked anywhere but at Clarus, trying to lose himself in the endless blue, only for a brief burst of panic forced him to close his eyes and think about anything else. The reality of being in the  _ middle of the ocean _  hadn’t hit him while in Old Altissia, but out here it was much harder to ignore. Which meant he had no other option but to pay full attention to Clarus’ theory.

After hearing the potential reason as to why the three did what they did… it wasn’t like Noctis couldn’t sympathize with their actions. Whenever a bad storm rolled in, and when Noctis hit puberty, his back scar practically immobilized him. He’d had to miss days, weeks of school growing up because he flat out couldn’t leave his bed without screaming. If there was a magic way to get rid of that pain, and never experience it again…

Well, Noctis might not have gone so far as to  _ kidnap _  somebody, but he could see some skewed logic. “Still…”

“I know, it’s a flimsy excuse.” Clarus sighed and flicked his tail harder, nearly dislodging Noctis entirely. “But it’s the best Cor and I can come up with. Those three only had each other to fall on, and maybe they just… never wanted to lose you again.”

“Yeah, well, my life wasn’t exactly tied to the ocean, y’know. There’s a lot more to land than just the beaches.”

Clarus chuckled, though it lacked humor. “Trust me, kid, I know. But speaking of, where’d you go? From what Gladio’s told me, he could sense you for a couple months before completely disconnecting.”

He shrugged. “I fell off my father’s boat in a storm, got my back shredded, and had to stay in a hospital for a couple months after surgery. I had… nightmares, I guess, where I wasn’t so lucky in the end. I always woke up holding onto one of the pieces, and they helped with the nightmares a bit. Eventually I got released and went home, and I still had them, but…”

“The nightmares changed?”

“Yeah. They weren’t bad, definitely not compared to the nightmares. They were calm and everything, but they were all underwater.” Noctis shuddered and dug his nails into Clarus’ shoulders, closing his eyes. “I couldn’t—it felt like the aftermath of the nightmares. When I was in the hospital, it was just a constant repeat of what happened—falling off the boat, getting swept away from the currents, my back hitting the rocks—but the dreams were just me, underwater, completely calm and unwilling to leave.”

“You were traumatized.”

This time, it was Noctis who chuckled. “Understatement of the century. I couldn’t go near the ocean because I’d panic, or shut down completely, and the dreams didn’t help. I had to take them off eventually and just brave whatever nightmares I got, because at the very least I could wake up from those and know I’d be  _ okay.” _

“I’m sorry.” Clarus said earnestly. “I had no idea—the boys just said you fell in, they bonded with you, and then left you on the shore. They didn’t tell me the extent of your injuries.”

“I don’t even think they  _ knew _ . I mean, they couldn’t have been much older than me, right? They would’ve had no idea that I could’ve potentially been paralyzed. It didn’t even register to me back then that that could happen.”

Clarus hummed, but otherwise made no attempts to start a new topic. Not that Noctis was complaining, he didn’t want to talk. He’d much rather close his eyes and forget where he was before his body remembered and forcefully shut down.

* * *

 

The next ten minutes were relatively silent, except for the occasional grunt of Clarus pushing himself to move faster, or Noctis hissing as he would temporarily lose his grip. It was a comfortable silent, leaving the both of them to their thoughts.

Clarus was the one to break it, reaching up to tap the back of Noctis’ hand to grab his attention. “We’re nearly at the coast line, but we’re far away enough so that the boats shouldn’t see us. I’m going to breach the surface, and you’re going to tell me if I should head to the right or the left to drop you off.”

Noctis blinked dumbly at that, but hummed in confirmation. The reality of the situation hadn’t exactly hit him up until then—he was actually going home, or well, back to the surface at the very least—and he was relatively okay. He’d never be able to forget what had happened to him, that was undeniable, but… He was actually in the home stretch.

Before he could think about it for long, Clarus angled himself upwards, and they shot to the surface. Noctis angled his head down, his body nearly plastering itself to Clarus’ as they breached. He spluttered, spitting out what felt like a gallon of salt water as the cold ocean air bit into his wet skin. He blinked dazedly, the sun reflecting off the waves and directly into his eyes, but they eventually adjusted.

He never thought he’d be  _ happy  _ to see the Gladin Quay’s piers.

Clarus’ head popped up in front of him, glancing over his shoulder to look at Noctis. “Up or down?”

“U-Uh…” Noctis looked around, recognizing the slight rocky hill that lead to the neighborhood he lived in to their right. “Up. Right.”

They moved slower, now. Clarus kept them above the water, waiting for the okay to turn towards land, and Noctis was grateful. He didn’t realize how much he missed air—open air, not the stale cave, or the thick feeling of breathing underwater—or seeing dry sand, or the countless boats bobbing on the waves. His chest felt tight, but he blamed it on the lingering sick feeling in his joints.

When Noctis felt that they were far away enough from the pier, but close enough to his house, he tapped Clarus’ shoulder. The mer obediently turned to the left, slicing through the tide and stopping when the sand scraped against Noctis’ feet. Grunting a bit in exertion, Noctis stood, nearly falling over as his body adjusted to the sudden shift in gravity.

“Do you need to lean on me?” Clarus joked. Noctis rolled his eyes as he steadied himself, stepping over Clarus and making his way out of the shallows.

“I’ll be fine.” Once he was firmly out of the foamy waters, Noctis turned around to address Clarus one last time. “Thanks. Seriously, thank you. I just… thanks.”

It was a lame apology, easily one of the most lackluster and ineloquent things Noctis had ever said. He’d have to choke out pleasantries and greetings to slimeball businessmen that were talking to his father on the daily.

Arguably, this was his most genuine show of gratitude, and Clarus didn’t need much more than that to give him a gentle smile. The mer turned, sent Noctis one last lingering look over his shoulder, then dove beneath the waves. For a split second, his dorsal fin slid through the surface, followed by his tail flicking up, and he was gone.

Noctis stood on the warm sand for a while, slowly getting his bearings back. The sand shifted beneath his feet as he started to walk again, stumbling like a newborn, but steadying the more and more until he was running far away from the foaming waves. He panted, face flushed as he made it to the concrete sidewalk, lifting his head and looking down the road to the small cluster of houses that flanked the beachside villas.

Sighing, Noctis tugged nervously at his chain necklace, took one last glance at the water (far, far behind him), and started walking down the road.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To give you all a more in-depth explanation of how Animas work:
> 
> \- Mers make them when they’re young and their magic is starting to develop. The better quality the metal/gems/carving work/etc., the more ‘attractive’ they are to their mate. Basically, they want to show off and make something that’s equally unique and impressive.  
> Their main purpose is to find a mer’s ‘mortigu’—their mate. Sometimes, there’s more than one mate, but a mer’s instinct and their magic dictate how many they should make.  
> \- Animas act somewhat like a compass, in a way. They light up the closer they are to a mer’s mate, but they also glow whenever the magic imbued in them is being used.  
> \- Spells can be ‘pushed,’ so to speak, through an Anima for maximum efficiency, but it can only be done between a set (basically, a mer can’t push a healing spell through an Anima to speed up the process exponentially through any old Anima on a someone—it can only be done by one mate to another)  
>  \+ This is basically how the merbros knock Noctis out so easily. Basically, they pushed a sleeping spell through their Animas to knock him out. In other instances—like when Noctis’ limbs felt heavy and almost paralyzed, that was just them pushing for him to be physically unable to move (sending feelings of heaviness, sleepiness, exhaustion, etc.).  
> \- When mates make physical contact with their Animas (such as when Ignis grabbed Noctis’ cuff), it’s a quicker way of deepening that bond. Basically, without the physical contact, sending emotions and spells takes a considerable effort and a decent amount of concentration. Physical contact gets rid of that effort needed, and basically streamlines the connection.   
>  \+ The reason why Noctis nearly passes when Ignis does this out is because he was just overwhelmed. Remember, he’s a normal human, and we don’t really use magic. It was a massive amount of sensory input in a short amount of time, and he was already disoriented from waking up in an underwater cave. It wasn’t going to end well, despite Ignis’ good intentions.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Noctis is good at ignoring his problems and pretending they don’t exist. That is, until his problems come knocking at his front door. 
> 
> (AKA technically more filler, but we needed this chapter before we could get the plot rolling once again. I formally apologize, but hopefully what happens next will make up for that.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have any of you guys seen that behind the scenes clip for Cars where the Pixar animators talk about how they thought up the simplest solution for writing a scene after a whole bunch of other options, all of which were much more complex and took too much thought and effort? 
> 
> That was me with this chapter. I wanted to make the whole thing complex and connected, and then I got stuck for a week trying to write a good transition, and then my brain went "What if, hear me out, you just put a linebreak there to indicate a change in scene." and I nearly punched myself in the face because that's literally the most obvious, simple solution and I didn't see it until I rewrote the damn transition paragraph ten times.
> 
> Anyways, this is still a little bit of filler at the start, but it's a necessary filler chapter to make sure that we can get the ball rolling. Should I fuse the previous chapter and this one together? Yeah, maybe, but then everyone would wonder where the new chapter is. This is what I get for not planning shit out in advance but hey! What can ya do.

There were still piles of unopened boxes littered around the house, full of miscellaneous crap that hadn’t been important when he first arrived. The A/C had been blasting non-stop, keeping the house at a comfortable sixty-nine degrees, but it had probably driven the electricity bill through the roof. His laptop was plugged in, and pulling out of sleep mode said that it had been seven days since he last logged in.

A whole _week,_ gone, because he had been kidnapped, shoved into a cave, got sick as all hell, and then was taken home.

But right now, he couldn’t give less of a shit. He made sure the front door was locked before stripping his thoroughly-ruined clothes as he went, fully intending to throw them away once he felt like less of a zombie. He left his boxers on, willing to suffer a bit longer if only to keep some level of decency. His stomach rumbled, so he grabbed a Cup Noodle carton from the refrigerator and put a filled kettle on the stove to boil. His phone, cracked and completely dead as it was, was placed reverently on the counter. Noctis hadn’t bought any rice in his initial grocery run, but even if he had, there was no way he could salvage the salty remains of his cellphone. 

He put his head down on the counter top and groaned, poking at the flavor packet that came with the noodles. He wanted nothing more than fall asleep and forget the past week. Though, for him, it was only a couple days. He wasn’t entirely sure how long he’d spent sick in Altissia _(underwater, trapped, body sinking to the floor of the ocean and left for—)_

An involuntary shudder ran down his spine, and he shut down that train of thought before he could completely shut down. He wanted to at least eat something before thinking about what had happened or, worse, have a panic attack in the middle of his kitchen.

The kettle’s whistle pulled him out of his head completely, and he pulled the cover off the Cup Noodles before carefully pouring the water and adding the flavor pack. He grabbed a fork and let his food sit for a bit, not only to let it cook, but also for the flavor pack to set in. 

Noctis sighed, watching the steam slowly rise and dissipate. He needed a plan. He needed to think about what to do next, and how to move on. He took his Cup Noodles to his bedroom and booted up his laptop, peeling off the paper lid and starting to dig in as he pulled up the college website.

It was too late to get a dorm room now, probably. He might be able to get the paperwork when the semester started in—he glanced over at his laptop’s calendar—a week, but he doubted that anything would come from that. For the foreseeable future, he was stuck in the villa, practically on the coastline, which he really, _really_ couldn’t deal with that at the current moment. He couldn’t deny that his fear had lessened slightly, but it was still _there._ It was like growing up and killing your first spider: sure, he could get near it and do what you need to do, but that doesn’t mean that he'd  ever stop being afraid of it. 

Until he figured something out, he’d need to get a new phone, fresh groceries, and to take a shower. With his Cup Noodles more or less devoured, Noctis pushed away from his desk and made his way across the hall to the bathroom. He was somewhat dry now, but he knew that he needed a shower to wash off whatever was in the oceanAs Noctis reached out to turn the shower faucet, he paused as the bracelet glinted in the harsh fluorescent lights. As he waited for the water to heat up, he turned and looked at his reflection, pulling at the chain necklace.

 _You need to take them off,_ he thought, now looking down at the cuff and twisting it. It barely budged, but he might be able to twist it off after he washed the sticky salt-water off his skin. It would hurt a lot, yeah, but it certainly wasn’t impossible.

He knew, he _knew,_ that he should take the stupid things off, throw them in a box, and then throw them out entirely. Hell, he could sell them on eBay to get a decent profit and pay for for the dorm he’d might get. But…

His fingers hesitated, running over the intricately carved chain links. He bit his lip, refusing to meet his reflection’s gaze, instead watching how the light glinted against the cool metal.

Noctis took his shower with his Animas still on.

* * *

_how to break a magical marriage_

“Nope.”

_divorce for dummies_

“Wait…”

_divorce for dummies merman help_

“Ugh, _no.”_

_my life is a fucking mess of a shitty ya novel help me please crhkmjrjhemxrhkemxj_

“God _dammit.”_ Noctis slammed his laptop shut and pushed away from his desk, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes as he made his way into the kitchen. He’d ended the previous day with the shower, then collapsed into his bed, falling asleep the moment his head hit the pillow.

Now it was mid-afternoon, and Noctis had made absolutely zero progress in figuring out what to do next. He still had to get groceries, and find a place to live further away from the coast, but beyond that he really didn’t have anything solid. Hell, the only part of that plan he could finish quickly was the grocery part, as it was a lot easier to get fresh food to eat than a new place to stay.

The internet was… unhelpful, to say the least. With everything. He started off with looking at his housing options, confirming that his college wouldn’t be able to give him a housing form until the semester started, and there were several hoops to jump through to get a transfer in the first place. After hitting that dead end, he tried looking up anything he could about mermaids, men, and anything about Animas.

 _That_ had gone on for about fifteen minutes with almost everything being unrelated, completely fantastical, or not matching with what he'd been through. Noctis’ frustration had risen to the point where, if he didn't stop, he'd end up punching a hole through his laptop. Plus, he didn’t eat breakfast before searching, so he was _starving,_ which only doubled his bad mood. He’d deal with another batch of Cup Noodles before having to do actual adult shit.

As for what to do after getting his list of chores done… he didn’t know. Getting his groceries and a new phone were a priority, and he was planning on doing that later today, but he didn’t know what to do after that. Getting rid of the Animas was probably the best course of action, but… 

The kettle whistled, and he jumped, nearly burning himself on the stove. He moved carefully after that, doing his best not to burn himself as he prepared his food. As Noctis waited, he glared at his bound wrists, then tugged at the chain necklace. He wanted to rip the Animas off and throw them away, but at the same time, a part of him wanted to keep them on. He fiddled with the bracelet, pulled it up to his palm, frowned, then let it drop back to his wrist.

He groaned, nearly knocking over his Cup Noodles as he flopped down onto the counter, somehow managing to catch it before it spilled everywhere. The chain necklace jangled as it hit the countertop, and Noctis’ grip tightened around the styrofoam cup, hissing as the heat sunk into his palm and burned at his skin.

He needed to talk to someone.

* * *

Luna’s number came to him as natural as breathing, and he leaned back on the plushy sofa in the living room as the phone rung. He hadn’t talked to Luna in a while, at least two weeks before he moved, mainly because they were both incredibly busy. Between him moving and adjusting to his new environment (and his subsequent kidnapping), and Luna hitting the pavement with her fashion line, they simply didn’t have time to talk.

But now, Noctis had ample time, and Luna should have adjusted to her new schedule. Hopefully the set of wireless phones that came with the house would be able to get a good reception from Tenebrae, because he was not going to wait until he bought a new cellphone to get some advice.

The phone rang once, twice, then the third ring was interrupted and Luna’s voice, a bit distorted from the reception, came through the speaker. “Hello?”

He chuckled leaning back further into the couch. “Hey, Luna.”

Luna spluttered on the other end of the line, there was a clatter in the background, accompanied by a muffled curse, before she spoke again. “Noctis, where have you been?”

“Uh…” Well, he hadn’t thought up an excuse for why he’d been missing in action for so long. He probably should’ve done that beforehand. “I know I promised to call once I got here, but—”

“Noctis, your father called me a few days ago, panicked out of his mind, saying that you’d been kidnapped.”

“Dad…?” Noctis trailed off, sitting up. “Wait, _what?”_

“He called me yesterday asking if I knew where you were. He said he hasn’t heard from you in the past few days, and he was worried that something happened to you. Said that a friend—” There was another clatter, followed by a series of barks, and Luna’s slightly lower voice. “Pryna, Umbra, sit! I’ll get to you in a moment.”

“A friend said _what?”_ Noctis felt the color drain from his face. Screw whatever his dad’s ‘friend’ told him, what if he called the police and actually reported that he was missing? “Shit. _Shit,_ Luna—”

“Don’t say another word, you can tell me what happened later. For now, I would call your father to assure him that you’re safe and sound before he escalates and calls the police.”

“Right, thanks for telling me.” Noctis promised. “I’ll talk to you soon, Luna.”

“Yes, goodbye Noctis!” The parting was quick, but Noctis smiled when he heard, on the other end of the line, “Umbra, get off the Gralean lace!”

He smiled, feeling slightly better after talking to Luna, even if it was brief. He’d ask Luna for advice once he was sure that his father hadn’t made his life hell.

Then again… it wasn’t like he’d already done that in his own, fatherly way.

“This is such a _mess.”_ Noctis groaned, now reluctantly dialing his father’s office. He hoped that it wasn’t an overly busy day, and that he wouldn’t be directed to his father’s assistant. He didn’t _mind_ Drautos, but he’d rather just get directed to his father and settle this whole mess.

He had to dial three times before his father picked up the phone. “This is Regis Lucis Caelum, head of Caelum Corporations. To whom am I speaking with?”

“Uh… your own flesh and blood?” There was a long stretch of silence, long enough that Noctis pulled the phone away from his ear to check that he hadn’t been disconnected. “Hello? Did I get disconnected?”

“Noctis?” His father’s voice trembled slightly, barely noticeable. “Is that really you?”

“I’m pretty sure, yeah.” He chuckled awkwardly. “Do you need me to tell you what I got on my seventh birthday to confirm it with you?”

“I got you a navy blue fishing rod and a Chocobo bobber, and I promised to go on a month-long fishing trip as we sailed around Lucis. Noctis…” His voice became stern. “Noctis, where have you been?”

“So, uh, okay, hold on because this is a bit of a story. On the first day here I wound up getting my phone _completely_ destroyed by dropping it in the ocean. I could’ve shoved it into a rice field and it wouldn’t be able to start up. I haven’t been able to find a store here that sells things at reasonable prices, so I’ve been looking for one online and then just trying to figure out how to activate it. I only _just_ got the lhome phones here to work, and even then I was trying to juggle that with moving in, so… ” Noctis shrugged. “I’ve only just been able to reach you.”

“You couldn’t have sent an email, or even a letter?” Regis chuckled, though Noctis could hear a hint of bitterness.

“I figured the email would just get lost in all the other ones you get for the company. And dad? No one sends letters anymore.” Noctis smiled when he heard a genuine laugh from him father “Plus, it took me a while to set up the internet, so I really haven’t been able to contact _anyone._ I ordered the new phone yesterday, so I should be able to tell you what my new number is soon.”

“If I may be honest with you, I’m simply glad that you’re talking to me.” Noctis frowned, knowing what would come next. “I know that I was rather… forceful with where and for what you should go to college, and I apologize for that. But—”

“But you want me to take over the company, I know.” Noctis sighed. “I get it, but… can we not talk about this right now? I just wanted you to know I was okay after the radio silence.”

Regis’ sigh was nearly drowned out by a quick series of knocks on the front door. Noctis grunted and stood from the couch, working a kink out of his neck as he made his way past the kitchen, keeping the phone close to his ear. “I do understand that our previous conversations have led to some… discomfort, on both of our parts. But the past is the past, and the future has not been set. We should both do our part to fix our current standings with each other.”

“Yeah, well,” Noctis wedged his phone between his shoulder and his ear as he undid the lock and pulled the front door open. “I don’t…”

Noctis’ voice trailed off as he stared at a very naked, very _human_ Ignis standing in the doorway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I absolutely cannot _wait_ to hear all of your reactions to Ignis  >:3c
> 
> \- For some more information, in this AU Lunafreya is the daughter of a well-known fashion designer known as Sylva Nox Fleuret, and has decided to follow in her mother’s footsteps in Tenebrae. She and Noctis initially met at a party her mother held in Tenebrae, and they remained close friends, despite their distance. Umbra and Pryna are a pair of stray dogs she adopted four years before the events of the story (Noctis adores them). I’m bringing this up because Luna isn’t going to be a massively important character in this story, mainly just a voice of reason for Noctis at some points, so we won’t see her much. I do have stuff planned for Luna, but it won't appear in this fic despite my love for her.
> 
> \- Hints at Noctis’ familial wealth have been interspersed throughout the story, and it’s slightly hinted at with this chapter. Regis is the head of a large technology company that he created and currently owns (think Apple, but less corrupt and awful). While I would tell you more about him and his relationship with Noctis, it would technically be spoilers, as Regis and Noctis’ relationship, and what caused them to be somewhat distant in the fic, will be brought up in at a later point.


End file.
